Steel Products Prices North America
January 12, 2016
Met Coal Companies Suffer from Low Coal Prices and Demand
Written by Sandy Williams
Coal companies have been struggling with regulation changes and decreasing demand over the past several years. According to U.S. Energy Information Administration data, coal production fell 10 percent in 2015 to its lowest level since 1986. Coal prices have dropped 35 percent in just the past two years. The result has been bankruptcy restructuring proceedings for several major coal producers in the U.S.
The latest is St. Louis based Arch Coal which announced on Jan. 11 that it filed Chapter 11 reorganization to facilitate financial restructuring. The company hopes to eliminate more than $4.5 billion in debt. Arch says it still enough cash to continue its normal mining activities and continue customer shipments during the process.
