Coal Prices Are Up to Decade Highs as Global Economy Recovers

August 6, 2021

This past year’s market disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic coupled with the eco-left’s war on the oil and gas industry has rocked many companies in the sector. Sadly, we saw countless oil and gas producers go under or face massive layoffs. Still, U.S. energy workers pushed forward – as blue-collar workers do – and continued to provide energy across the country that powered homes and hospitals during these troubling times.

Finally, we are seeing are much deserved payback to the industry with prices for thermal coal having shot up to a decade high. Thermal coal is burned to generate electricity, and as the global economic recovery continues supplies struggle to keep pace with demand from China and elsewhere.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Glencore, the biggest producer of thermal coal for export by sea, on Thursday posted record earnings of $8.7 billion in the first six months of 2021, up 79% from a year earlier. A decline in coal production offset the effect of rising prices, which began to surge late in the first half, but Glencore said the coal market would be a big moneymaker for the rest of the year.

…

Investors are rewarding the miners that stuck with coal. Peabody shares have more than quadrupled this year, while London-listed Glencore is up 39% and Whitehaven has risen 29%.

Coal is a vital baseline source of electricity to the energy grid. With renewable energy like solar and wind being heavily unreliable, coal is used to quickly provide electricity when those sources fail. This is a truth the eco-left refuses to address because it would affirm that renewable energy is a more expensive, unreliable energy source to depend on.

For the U.S. industry, higher prices have provided a reprieve after a downdraft in coal markets in the early days of the pandemic tipped several smaller companies into bankruptcy. St. Louis-based Peabody reported a 15% year-over-year increase in second-quarter revenue and is spending on mine expansions. Chief Executive Jim Grech told analysts coal demand will grow globally even as it falls in the U.S.