• About
  • Contact
  • Editorial
  • Policies
  • Archives
Angry Bear
Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.
  • US/Global Economics
  • Taxes/regulation
  • Healthcare
  • Law
  • Politics
  • Climate Change
  • Social Security
  • Hot Topics
« Back

WHAT IS HAPPENING TO COAL PRODUCTION ?

Spencer England | May 31, 2019 9:22 am

Taxes/regulation
US/Global Economics

Does anyone know why coal production is falling out of bed?  It is down some 40% from its August level.


But coal employment is still near its’ recent peak, which implies that productivity is horrible.

I suspect the problem is exports to China.

Maybe someone needs to ask Trump about this.

Comments (10) | Digg Facebook Twitter |
10 Comments
  • r.j. sigmund says:
    May 31, 2019 at 10:07 am

    low priced natural gas for one. utilities have been switching. a chart of nat gas production would show the inverse..

  • r.j. sigmund says:
    May 31, 2019 at 10:25 am

    value of year to date coal exports: $1,607 million same time last year $1,778 million.
    Exhibit 7 https://www.bea.gov/system/files/2019-05/trad0319.pdf

  • SW says:
    May 31, 2019 at 10:28 am

    No one wants to sit with stinky anymore.

  • pgl says:
    May 31, 2019 at 12:12 pm

    We simply do not export much coal to China even if we export a lot of coal worldwide. And coal exports were strong in 2018.

    https://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/statistics/product/enduse/exports/c0000.html

  • pgl says:
    May 31, 2019 at 12:21 pm

    EIA traces U.S. consumption of coal over time:

    https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=37692

    Note how this has declined over the last decade.

  • Spencer England says:
    May 31, 2019 at 3:11 pm

    But coal exports have been growing rapidly.
    Exports have increased from about 8% of
    coal production in 2015 to 15% in 2018.

    https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=38774

    But you are right that China is not a significant destination..

    Still, the drop in coal output in recent months is much larger than the long term decline would explain.

  • Spencer England says:
    May 31, 2019 at 3:19 pm

    Interesting, in the table of coal exports by destination “other”
    now accounts for half of total coal exports.

    Apparently, China is included in other.

  • pgl says:
    May 31, 2019 at 3:40 pm

    Spencer – granted exports rose from 60 million short tons to 120 million tons but note that domestic consumption used to exceed 1 billion short tons and now is closer to 750 million short tons. Simply put – most of our domestic production goes to domestic consumption so a 25% reduction in domestic consumption swamps even a double of exports.

    Census is a nice source for both total exports as well as exports by country. But note it – like BEA – reports dollar volumes not quantities and coal prices vary over time.

  • r.j. sigmund says:
    May 31, 2019 at 3:57 pm

    coal used for US electric generation appears to be down about 40% over 11 years: https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=37692

    the chart here virtually mirrors yours, Spencer..

  • Dan Crawford says:
    June 3, 2019 at 7:42 am

    Coal and Britain

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2019/may/25/the-power-switch-tracking-britains-record-coal-free-run

Featured Stories

June 29, 2022, Letters from an American

run75441

Money In Politics

Robert Waldmann

How should Democrats fight Dobbs?

Eric Kramer

Housing prices surge, no moderation in CPI

NewDealdemocrat

Contributors

Dan Crawford
Robert Waldmann
Barkley Rosser
Eric Kramer
ProGrowth Liberal
Daniel Becker
Ken Houghton
Linda Beale
Mike Kimel
Steve Roth
Michael Smith
Bill Haskell
NewDealdemocrat
Ken Melvin
Sandwichman
Peter Dorman
Kenneth Thomas
Bruce Webb
Rebecca Wilder
Spencer England
Beverly Mann
Joel Eissenberg

Subscribe

Blogs of note

    • Naked Capitalism
    • Atrios (Eschaton)
    • Crooks and Liars
    • Calculated Risk
    • Economist View
    • Hullabaloo
    • Talking Points
    • Memo
    • Washington
    • Monthly
Angry Bear
Copyright © 2022 Angry Bear Blog

Topics

  • US/Global Economics
  • Taxes/regulation
  • Healthcare
  • Law
  • Politics
  • Climate Change
  • Social Security
  • Hot Topics
  • US/Global Economics
  • Taxes/regulation
  • Healthcare
  • Law
  • Politics
  • Climate Change
  • Social Security
  • Hot Topics

Pages

  • About
  • Contact
  • Editorial
  • Policies
  • Archives