US coal output jump by 9 percent for the year

20 November 2017

As per the recently released figures by the US Energy Information Agency (EIA), on 11^th November 2017, US’ year-to-date coal production totalled at an estimated 679.8 million short tons (mmst), 9% higher than the comparable year-to-date coal production in 2016.

World’s second largest coal producers have produced approximately 14.8 mmst of coal for the week ending 11^th November 2017, EIA said in its latest report. This production estimate is 1.7% lower than last week’s estimate and 7.8% lower than the production estimate in the comparable week in 2016.

Looking at the production break-up, east of the Mississippi River produced an estimated 5.5 mmst and west of the Mississippi River produced an estimated 9.2 mmst.

Coal production for the first 10 months of 2017 is estimated to have been 656 MMst, 59 MMst (10%) higher than production for the same period in 2016. Annual production is expected to be about 790 MMst in both 2017 and 2018.

Coal exports for the first seven months of 2017 totalled 51 MMst, which was 62% higher than in the same period of 2016. EIA expects growth in coal exports to slow, with exports for all of 2017 forecast at 75 MMst, 15 MMst (24%) higher than the 2016 level.

Coal’s forecast generation share rises from 30% last year to 31% in 2017. EIA expects the share of U.S. total utility-scale electricity generation from natural gas will fall from an average of 34% in 2016 to about 31% in 2017 as a result of higher natural gas prices and increased generation from renewables and coal.