Coal news and updates

Coal producer Sunrise lays off miners in southern Indiana

Illinois Basin thermal coal producer Sunrise Coal has laid off 38 miners at its southern Indiana underground operations in an action the company blamed Tuesday on the soft coal market.

The Hallador Energy subsidiary furloughed 18 miners at its flagship Carlisle mine in Sullivan County and 20 contract workers at its Oaktown complex in Knox County, Sunrise spokeswoman Suzanne Jaworowski said.

"It's the soft coal market," Jaworowski said in an interview. "We're backed up."

She refused to characterize the downsizing as permanent, but said the company cannot guarantee the employees will be recalled.

It was not immediately clear what impact, if any, the Sunrise cuts will have on production. Earlier this year, Hallador CEO Brent Bilsland predicted the company would turn out about 10.2 million short tons of coal in 2015.

Jaworowski acknowledged Sunrise has huge stockpiles of coal sitting on the ground at the Oaktown complex about 50 miles north of Evansville, Indiana.

She said she did not know, however, if the bloated inventory results from utility customers taking only contract minimums to generate electricity to serve a largely flat load.

Major Hallador/Sunrise customers include Duke Energy, Hoosier Energy, Indianapolis Power & Light and Northern Indiana Public Service. Coal also is delivered to three unidentified Florida utilities.

source: http://www.platts.com