Flooding in Australian coal mines and power outages in South African ones led coal producers in those countries to halt or slow production, particular exports to asia, leading to spikes in prices.
CONSOL has to shut down their overseas exporting Baltimore Terminal because of structural issues. There is settling under the pier where it is located, and the terminal must be shut down for four weeks. This will cause an estimated loss of 500,000 tons of coal exported http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNews/idUSL0717846620080107 . However, it may cause a price increase that will offset the loss in volume (supply/demand).
The market prices for coal have soared in the past three months. This has been especially true for the Appalachian coal in which CONSOL is the leading supplier. Additionally, CNX has the best market position for international coal delivery, where demand has soared.
