The bad news just keeps coming in: Drummond issues 60-day notices at Shoal Creek

摘要

In what's likely a harbinger of further such moves, perhaps most especially from producers in Central Appalachia, Alabama mining giant Drummond has issued a 60-day notice of layoffs in advance of what likely will be the idling of its Shoal Creek mid-vol longwall mine. Given conditions in the metallurgical coal market, the move isn't much of a surprise. Drummond doesn't mine for sport. But one wonders about the long-term implications of the Shoal Creek decision. The conventional wisdom is that Drummond would benefit from installing a second longwall at the mine, increasing production and lowering costs. But this is hardly a market that seems hungry for that kind of increased supply dosage.