Whoa! Hold up on that 50-million-tonne export forecast... just a little bit, anyhow

摘要

While not seeking to deflate entirely some of the lofty projections circulating for U.S. metallurgical coal exports for 2010, a U.S. Coal Review source questioned whether forecasts that include numbers beyond 50 million tons are achievable. Some estimates have as many as 53 million tons of coking coal leaving the East Coast this year, a number the source says pushes the bounds of reason. "I just did a survey to look at how much met coal (production) capacity is physically out there," he said. "If the U.S. consumes 20 million, it can't make that number. Look at the numbers. This year was 36.5 million, and somebody thinks that is going up 16 or 17 million?"