Coal Profits Mask Lack Of US Economic Activity

TIM HUBER

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Coal mining companies from Appalachia to Missouri are seeing plenty of rebounding demand, just not here at home.

Fresh from reporting third-quarter earnings, coal producers say booming Asian economies are increasingly hungry for energy even as the hardest-hit mining regions in the U.S. see little prospect for a comeback in coming months.

Big coal producers such as St. Louis-based Peabody Energy and Arch Coal say the rising demand for metallurgical coal, a key ingredient in steelmaking, is largely a foreign phenomenon.

On Tuesday, the top U.S. producer of metallurgical coal, Alpha Natural Resources, said it's planning to up production 1 million tons next year to take advantage and CEO Kevin Crutchfield said orders are starting to come in from Eastern and Western Europe.

America, on the other hand, remains in the doldrums.

"Nobody is seeing any effect of the stimulus in the U.S.," said steel industry analyst Charles Bradford of Affiliated Research Group. "There is recovery in world steel output."