Supply of Powder River Basin coal slow to respond as demand shows sharp increase after slow 2009

摘要

Demand has returned to the Powder River Basin in an encouraging way. Supply is a bit slow to react. Those dynamics help to explain why PRB prices have been on a rather steady incline in recent weeks. In terms of sales opportunities, there has been "a lot more activity," one PRB source said. "Obviously it's just night and day from a year ago." Here's an example: This time last year, a source said he had multiple force majeure notifications in hand from buyers representing "in excess of a couple million tons. Tons were just flying off the dadburn ledger," he said. "I don't have one this year."