The US coal industry 1996

Conference · Tue Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1996

OSTI ID:414910

Campbell, J A.L. ^[1]

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1. Custom Coals International, Inc., Oklahoma City, OK (United States)

Several years ago a friend and former classmate, Dr. Doug Dahl, put the coal industry into perspective. At that time he worked for Consol, whose parent company was DuPont. I will use his story, but update it with today`s statistics. As can be seen in Figure 1, total US coal production continues to show healthy growth. In 1995 we produced 1,032,000,000 tons, and 1,046,000,000 tons are projected for 1996. Unfortunately as seen in Figure 2, the average price per ton of coal sold is still dropping. The coal industry is experiencing the unusual situation of falling coal prices with increasing coal demand! In 1994 (1995 data not available) the average price for a ton of coal was only $19.41. Multiplying the two numbers, yields the total sales value for our entire industry, $20.1 billion in 1994. That`s roughly half the approximately $40 billion per year sales value for a single chemical company, DuPont, Dr. Dahl`s parent company. As Dr. Dahl pointed out, the coal industry just isn`t that big. As we can see in Figure 3, the yearly trends show that the total value of the US coal production is shrinking. The total value has fallen through the 90`s and follows the average price per ton trend. Even increases in production have generally not been enough to offset the falling prices.

• OSTI ID: 414910
• Report Number(s): CONF-960460--
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

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ACID RAIN
COAL
COAL INDUSTRY
COMPETITION
ECONOMICS
MARKET
PRICES
PRODUCTION
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SUPPLY AND DEMAND