Ukraine Crisis Could Send Coal Prices To $500

While much has been written about the oil, gas, and nickel price spikes, the current global coal crunch has largely been overlooked. While coal demand had been waning for the last decade, Russia’s market share has increased just as coal becomes a key energy source again. Most of Europe’s best coal has already been extracted, […]

Coal’s on a comeback in energy-desperate Europe

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has offered coal a European lifeline. Such a prospect would have seemed impossible only a few weeks ago. Before war broke out, European nations were rolling out increasingly ambitious plans to phase out the carbon-intensive fuel even as gas prices rose, power plants were going offline and some countries were exiting […]

US Coal Export Prices Hit All-Time Highs

Global energy prices rose sharply this week amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict, a trend that hit US thermal coal export prices March 3. FOB Baltimore and FOB NOLA coal prices hit record highs, according to the Platts assessment by S&P Global Commodity Insights. “These are times like I haven’t seen in my 40 years of business,” […]

Central Appalachia coal production surges to nine-year high: EIA

Central Appalachia weekly coal production surged to the highest level in over nine years, according to data released by the US Energy Information Administration Feb. 24. The increased CAPP output encompasses both met and thermal coal and is due in part to global tension around the Russia/Ukraine situation, S&P Global Platts Analytics Coal & Power […]

US coal exports to China soared in 2021

The US shipped 15.3mn metric tonnes of coal to China in 2021, up nearly five-fold from 3.1mn ts in 2020, according to shipbroker Banchero Costa. Australian coal shipments to China fell by 76.2mn t or 32pc last year, following Beijing’s unofficial ban on coal imports that started in late 2020. And increased demand for thermal […]

US thermal coal exports hit four-year high in 2021: Census data

US thermal coal exports surged to four-year high 36.17 million mt in 2021, up 47.9% from 2020, according to US Census Bureau data released Feb. 9. December thermal coal exports totaled 3.12 million mt, up 0.7% on the month and 18.7% from December 2020. December coal exports were at a six-month high —the highest monthly […]

EIA projects coal, renewables to generate equal stack shares in 2022

Coal and renewables both are projected to generate 22% of the total power generation stack in 2022, the US Energy Information Administration said in a Feb. 8 report. Coal is expected to have a 22% generation share in 2022 and a 21.7% generation share in 2023, down from 22.6% in 2021. Renewables are projected to […]

US thermal coal exports reach 6-month high

US thermal coal exports reached a six-month high in December, as shipments to parts of Africa, northern Asia and Europe climbed. Steam coal volumes heading out of the US totaled 3.44mn short tons (3.12mn metric tonnes) in the last month of 2021, up from just under 3mn st a year earlier and 3.1mn st in […]

Industry sources say US coal stocks will burn out

In an industry known for its boom or bust cycles, coal producers are aware that current high demand and record prices for the commodity aren’t going to reflect in coal producers bottom lines for long. Spot prices boomed last week for Central Appalachia coal, up $3.15 to $89.70 a ton, but down from the last […]