CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The top man with West Virginia’s coal industry said recently announced layoffs are no surprise amid a weakening global market for coal. Chris Hamilton, President of the West Virginia Coal Association indicated the price worldwide for both steam coal and met coal has been impacted by recent events.
“Prices internationally are falling like a rock right now and there’s a real weak market on top of that,” said Hamilton.
This week CORE Natural Resources announced plans to lay off close to 200 workers at the Itman #5 Mine in Wyoming County along with the mine’s nearby preparation plant. The announcement follows layoffs in recent months at two other coal operations in Logan County.
Coal fired power generation is in a lull between the peak of winter demand and the peak of summer demand. Hamilton said it all hit at the worst possible time. As for the metallurgical coal, he said U.S. coal producers are being dogged by a lot of foreign competition in the European markets from coal produced in Australia and Russia.
“Met prices have fallen off about 25 percent over the last three months and that demand is also pretty weak right now,” he added.
Hamilton said although the ongoing tariff announcements and trade negotiations being handled by the White House is having an impact on coal, it’s not to the degree most would expect.
“A lot of that coal is finding a different location or a different place. Some of it was being stocked up and stored, but yes the tariffs are having an impact and it’s something we’re monitoring very closely, ” he explained.
Hamilton said it’s hard to a know how long the layoffs will last or if we have seen the last of them for the summer. Hamilton said he’d be surprised to hear of another layoff notice, unless it was already in the pipeline to happen amid the most recent mine idling activity. He hoped the bulk of work stoppages was over and there would be a quick rebound to the demand.