Queensland Floods Spur U.S. Coal Exports to Highest in 15 Years

[sasha031]

The biggest floods in Queensland, Australia, in half a century are turning into a windfall for U.S. coal mining companies anticipating record profits and the highest exports in 15 year. Shipments from the U.S. are poised to rise 8.8 percent this year to about 86.5 million tons, the most since 1996, the Energy Department in Washington said Feb. 8. Demand for American coal is increasing after floods devastated an area of Australia twice the size of Texas. Queensland’s combined output of steelmaking and thermal coal may be reduced by 23 million metric tons, Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a Jan. 25 report. That’s about 13 percent of the state’s exports in the year ended in June.
Disruptions will drive the average price of U.S. Eastern coal used to make steel up 13 percent to $254 a ton and the fuel used in power plants to $74 a ton, 20 percent higher than a year ago, according to the median of 11 analysts in a Bloomberg News survey. That may spur a fivefold profit gain for Alpha Natural Resources Inc. and 75 percent for Walter Energy Inc., while boosting President Barack Obama’s goal of doubling exports by 2014.

“Are we pushing the price? You’re damn straight we are,” said Bob Pusateri, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Canonsburg, Pennsylvania-based Consol Energy Inc., which operates 18 mines across six U.S. states. “If there is a short-term phenomenon because of weather-related issues, the coal companies are going to take advantage of it.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-14/queensland-floods-drive-u-s-coal-exports-to-15-year-high-in-record-profi.html

[aquart]

1. We better take advantage while we can.

We are all going to have bad days with climate change.

[sasha031]

3. we are already there

:(

[sasha031]

2. capitalism, turning disaster into profit and destroying the planet in the process

[DCKit]

4. Series. All the profit and paying no price for the environmental damage here.

Ratfuckers.

[sasha031]

5. ya, this story really pisses me off!!!