The Chamber of Commerce of the Two Virginias based in Bluefield and Princeton, WV has announced that Registration is now open for the 2024 Bluefield Coal Symposium taking place at the Chuck Mathena Center in Princeton, WV on August 12-14.
Full details and Registration Forms can be found at CoalZoom.com. There are a number of Packages available. Package A, which includes everything, costs $495.00 per person. There are three technical sessions, two dinners with top class live entertainment, and one lunch. Package A (Student or Retired) also includes everything and costs $225.00 per person. Package E includes Everything plus the “Exhibition in Print” Table and MINExpo Package. This costs $995.00 per person.
“At the Symposium we are very proud to have distinguished decision makers “dig” into the current issues in the coal industry and examine the challenges and opportunities of coal so we can all see what the future of the industry looks like,” said Bill Reid, Chair of the Symposium and Managing Editor of CoalZoom.com ”As the American coal industry gets more compact, the opportunities for gatherings of this kind for coal people will get less and less, and early registration will ensure guaranteed entrance to this one-of-a-kind event.”
Bill Reid
The Bluefield Coal Symposium has the theme Using US Coal for a Better America. This national event is jointly presented by the Chamber of Commerce of the Two Virginias and CoalZoom.com. The Symposium has four main goals:
- to aid the search for zero accidents;
- to lift the spirits of those serving the coal industry and bring everyone together;
- to help promote MINExpo INTERNATIONAL®;
· to examine the challenges and opportunities for coal.
“The American coal industry makes a $28 billion economic contribution to the Nation each year and there are 68,179 employees at coal mines, including contractors, with both direct and indirect workers totaling 324,800,” said Reid. “We will examine the future of coal and this Symposium will certainly be one of the major events in the 2024 coal calendar leading up to MINExpo®.”
The Symposium includes entertainment with special live performances by Twitty and Lynn, who will provide a Salute to Conway & Loretta, as well as an appearance of Exile, who will perform many of their hit songs.
For further information on this marquee event, please contact the Chamber of Commerce at (304) 327-7184 or visit CoalZoom.com. Bill Reid can be reached at billreidcoal@gmail.com.
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CONSOL Energy Hopes to Get Baltimore Coal Exports Up and Running in June
CONSOL Energy's ability to ship coal from its Pennsylvania mines to foreign countries continues to be constrained by the Port of Baltimore's closing after the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse on March 26, although the company hopes to get back on track quickly if the shipping channel reopens by the end of the month.
"I think we can start right out of the gate on June 1, moving everything we have planned," CEO Jimmy Brock said during the Canonsburg-based CONSOL's first-quarter earnings call Tuesday.
The March 26 collapse, caused by a hit to the bridge by a large cargo ship, killed six construction workers on the bridge and halted operations in and out of one of the country's biggest ports. That was a massive blow to the operations of CONSOL (NYSE: CEIX), which ships about 60% of its coal to the export markets in railroad cars from Greene and Washington counties through its own CONSOL Marine Terminal.
Having that terminal and its cost savings has been a major weapon in the past for Consol. But with the shipping lanes out for at least two months, CONSOL has had to find other ways to ship coal overseas, primarily by moving coal from Pennsylvania via railroad to another coal-loading terminal in Norfolk, Virginia. Brock thanked the railroad companies for their flexibility.
"It has allowed us to move 50% of our planned export volumes," Brock said. That's between 600,000 and 800,000 tons of coal per month compared to between 1.2 million and 1.5 million tons it would normally ship out of the Baltimore marine terminal in a normal month. Terminal revenue was $25 million in the quarter, compared to $27 million a year ago.
SVP/Chief Commercial Officer Robert Braithwaite said shipping coal through Norfolk instead of Baltimore adds about $10 a ton in extra costs, which is about $14 million at the current volume. Cash costs per ton were $40.29, compared to $33.61 a year ago. The company is reducing capital expenditures and taking other measures to control costs, Brock said. It's also speeding deliveries of coal to domestic customers, which is a lesser share of the company's revenues than in previous years.
To continue reading, click here to view the full article on CoalZoom.com.
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Energy Addition
The tragic collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge on March 26 and its impact on the Port of Baltimore has brought a fresh eye to the importance of U.S. coal exports to domestic miners but also to global markets. It has also highlighted that global coal demand continues to grow, hitting a new record last year and surpassing 8.5 billion tons for the first time.
U.S. coal exports are a critical piece of that global equation, reaching more than 70 nations. The Port of Baltimore is the nation’s second largest hub for coal exports behind Norfolk, Virginia and accounts for 28% of U.S. coal exports. Thermal coal moving out of Baltimore played a crucial role in helping Europe keep the lights on during the toughest months of its energy crisis following its rapid pivot away from Russian energy. And last year, thermal exports from Baltimore primarily moved to India for use in the cement and brick manufacturing industries.
Metallurgical coal exports from Baltimore, used for steel making, largely move to Asia with top destinations including Japan, South Korea and China. The majority of the world’s primary steel production — about 70% — uses coal-fueled blast furnaces. Last year, U.S. coal exports rose 17.7% from 2022 to 90.5 million metric tons. Of that volume, 51.4% was metallurgical coal and 48.6% was thermal coal.
Coal remains foundational to the world’s energy and economic development needs, and a strong market for U.S. coal exports reflects that reality.
Losing Touch with History and Reality
Renowned energy analyst and historian Dan Yergin recently observed that the world isn’t just using more coal than ever before but three times what it did in the 1960s. While Yergin recognizes significant changes in the global energy mix, he said, “I’m sick of the energy transition discussion. It sometimes loses touch with economic history and reality. If you look at the history of energy transitions, they all last for over a century. To try and make change happen in 25 years, or even half of that time is highly unlikely.”
To continue reading, click here to view the full article on CoalZoom.com.
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Where is the Power Going to Come From?
It is becoming inarguably clear the U.S. is in for a surge in electricity demand. The Biden EPA just finalized its tailpipe rule and by 2032, 70% of new cars will run primarily on electricity. New semiconductor and battery manufacturing plants are connecting to the grid with power demands that rival small cities. Add in AI and the explosive growth of data centers and we’re jumping from an era of flat power demand to one with breakneck growth overnight.
The world is now adding a new data center every three days. The International Energy Agency estimates that data centers’ electricity consumption in 2026 will near Japan’s annual electricity needs, the world’s 4th largest economy.
There is consensus that we’re going to need a lot more power; what is far less clear is where it’s going to come from.
While The Washinton Post, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have all recently put a spotlight on surging demand and a projected shortfall in power supply, little attention has been given to the other elephant in the room: the accelerating loss of existing baseload generation, namely the nation’s coal fleet.
If it seems paradoxical that the administration is pushing for the premature closure of well operating coal power plants that can meet the needs of tens-of-millions of homes while power demand surges, you will get no argument here.
In PJM alone – the nation’s largest electricity market serving 65 million people – the grid operator’s independent watchdog is warning the market could lose 58 GW of dispatchable power by 2030, enough generating capacity to serve 40 million homes.
To continue reading, click here to view the full article on CoalZoom.com.
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Wyoming’s Powder River Basin Closes In On 9 Billion Tons Of Coal Dug Up
Sometime this summer, there will be a silver anniversary celebration of sorts for Wyoming’s coal-rich Powder River Basin.
Despite all the gloom and doom of coal industry projections that call for falling production from the Cowboy State, America’s coal heartland is expected to hit an astonishing 9 billion tons of coal produced in the last 25 years since 1998.
It’s a silver lining for a region that has been bleeding red ink of late.
A man standing next to an SUV gives perspective to this huge exposed coal seam at a Powder River Basin mine.
Photo: Bureau of Land Management Wyoming
Given the projections about cuts in coal production expected this year out of St. Louis-based coal behemoths Arch Resources Inc. and Peabody Energy Corp., and previous trends reported on overall coal volume in the first half of the year being down more than 20%, it’s likely that the 9 billion ton milestone could be reached in July.
In a region where production of PRB coal is measured in the millions of tons, hitting 9 billion tons is something pretty remarkable, said Travis Deti, executive director for the Wyoming Mining Association.
“It really is remarkable when you think about it,” he said.
Those Billions Of Tons Has Meant Billions Of Dollars
Coal dug out of the Powder River Basin, which supplies about 40% of the thermal coal in the nation, has formed the fabric of life in Wyoming for years, Deti said.
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