NEWS 25 - WEHT: Evansville, Henderson, Owensboro-Coal profits mask lack of US economic activity
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Associated Press - November 3, 2009 4:54 PM ET
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - Coal mining companies from Appalachia to Missouri are seeing plenty of rebounding demand, just not in the United States.
Fresh from reporting third-quarter earnings, coal producers say booming Asian economies are increasingly hungry for energy even as the hardest-hit mining regions in the U.S. see little prospect for a comeback in coming months.
Big coal producers such as St. Louis-based Peabody Energy and Arch Coal say the rising demand for metallurgical coal, a key ingredient in steelmaking, is largely a foreign phenomenon.
On Tuesday, the top U.S. producer of metallurgical coal, Alpha Natural Resources, said it's planning to up production 1 million tons next year to take advantage, and CEO Kevin Crutchfield said orders are starting to come in from Eastern and Western Europe.
Producers have now idled enough U.S. mines to trim approximately 100 million tons of coal_ roughly 9 percent - from production this year. Hundreds of miners in West Virginia, Kentucky and other key coal states have lost their jobs.
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