Coal news and updates

Coal shipping seen resuming on mississippi river

Coal shipments on the Mississippi River resumed on Wednesday after rare early winter flooding grounded barges from St Louis south in late December, sources said.

Knight Hawk Coal, a small southern Illinois coal producer, resumed coal shipments Wednesday afternoon from its Lone Eagle dock on the Mississippi near Chester, Illinois, according to Andrew Carter, who is in charge of coal sales for the company.

Knight Hawk lost about a week of river shipping because of the high water that fortunately for the company came amid its traditional year-end "slow period," Carter said in an interview.

Knight Hawk is expected to produce between 4.5 million and 5 million st of high-sulfur thermal coal in 2016, primarily for the US electric utility market. Much of that coal is transported to customers via Lone Eagle.

Meanwhile, shipping remained officially suspended at Kinder Morgan's Cahokia and Cora river terminals, company spokesman Richard Wheatley said. However, there were indications that at least the Cora terminal should be operational again soon.

"We began suspension of operations for the affected terminals the last week of December," around December 28, he said.

An employee at the Cora terminal near Rockwood, Illinois, said in an interview that the company is "in the process of getting things back going again." The employee, who asked not to be identified, indicated shipping will resume before the end of the week.

Cora handles both coal, mainly from the Powder River Basin, and petcoke, although Kinder Morgan does not disclose amounts.

The Cahokia terminal, just downriver from St. Louis, also handles coal, among other commodities.

Source: Platts.com