West Virginina sharpens focus on met coal market as conditions improve

摘要

As the makeup of West Virginia’s coal industryhas shifted toward metallurgical coal, eyes are increasingly focusedmore on the international market than on domestic coal consumers.The state’s Central Appalachia mines are a prime source of US metcoal, and after a prolonged downturn in international demand, WestVirginia has benefited from recent improvements. Deck Slone, thesenior vice president of strategy and public policy at Arch Coal, told acrowd of coal industry representatives that “this is an optimistic time”for metallurgical coal markets.