Alpha Natural Resources

The retirement of coal-fired power plants and the impact of new regulations proposed by the EPA present two major blows to the US thermal coal industry.

Wall Street analysts’ consensus estimate for loss per share was $0.289.

Kansas City Southern (KSU), a US-Mexico railroad, is the smallest Class I railroad in the US.

BNSF Railway’s (BRK-B) total railcars for the week ended December 10, 2016, fell 5.5% to ~95,000 units, compared to ~100,000 units on a year-over-year basis.

Cloud Peak Energy (CLD) shipped 16.0 million tons of coal from its three owned and operated mines in the Powder River Basin (or PRB) in 2Q15.

Westmoreland’s Canadian operations Westmoreland Coal (WLB) acquired seven surface mines in Alberta and Saskatchewan, a stake in an activated carbon plant, and a char plant in Canada from Sherritt International in 2014. As of January 1, 2016, WLB’s Canadian operations are grouped as one entity, Prairie Mines & Royalty ULC. Its Canadian operations hold total […]

ANR produces thermal coal from its mines in the Appalachian and Powder River Basin (or PRB). The company had around three billion tons of thermal coal reserves.

On September 29, 2017, Brent crude oil prices closed at $57.54 per barrel compared to $56.86 the previous week.

In July 2017, Genesee and Wyoming recorded a slight decline in its North American traffic YoY (year-over-year).

BNSF’s total railcars for the week ended February 25, 2017, rose 2.3% YoY to more than 92,000 units.

In the week ending June 11, 2016, Kansas City Southern’s (KSU) total railcars declined by 8.1% YoY (year-over-year).

The Clean Air Act is a national air pollution control policy that regulates the emission of hazardous pollutants from stationary and mobile sources in the United States.

According to the EIA, low sulphur content coal is defined as having less than 0.60 pounds of sulphur per million British thermal units.

According to the World Coal Association, there are two main underground mining methods in the US.

Land ownership in the US can be broadly divided into the following categories: federally owned land, state-owned land, privately owned land, and Native American land.

Coal types differ from each other as a result of the difference in their organic matter content and maturity.

Electricity storage is expensive. Most of the produced electricity is consumed instantaneously. As a result, electricity generation mirrors consumption.

Natural gas prices and coal’s market share in electricity generation are related. When natural gas prices rise, coal gains market share.

The EIA (US Energy Information Administration) publishes a weekly natural gas inventory and withdrawal report every Thursday.

Coke is used in the iron making process, which in turn is used in the steelmaking process. SunCoke Energy produced 4.2 million tons of coke in 2013.

Iron ore, steel scrap, and met coal are the main raw materials for steelmaking. SunCoke converts met coal to coke by driving out its impurities.

US thermal coal exports were 19.6 million tons in the first half of 2014—down from 26.9 million tons during same period in 2013. The drop was mainly driven by falling demand from Europe.

In the seaborne met coal market, the swing producers are clearly the Australian producers. Australia is the second largest of the met coal producers. It’s the largest met coal exporter.

Brunswick is a leading global designer, manufacturer, and marketer of recreation products including marine engines, boats, fitness equipment, and bowling and billiards equipment.

Coal mining in the U.S. can be segregated into three main areas: Appalachia, Interior, and West.

Underground mining is more expensive because it’s more capital intensive. Coal companies have to drill more, and use more expensive and complicated machines.

Coal is often called the “buried sunshine” because it developed from the remains of plants and greens that existed as long as 400 million years ago.