This holiday season, you might want to put some coal in your stocking. Check out a chart of the Market Vectors Coal ETF (KOL: 34.03 +0.12 +0.35%).
Global coal usage is projected to increase by 55% by 2025. In the shorter term, inventories at U.S. power stations are higher than normal, according to coal industry executives quoted in a Reuters report. But those same executives expect the market to be back in balance by the end of 2010 as the U.S. economy continues to pick up steam.
And then there’s China. Bloomberg reported that Chinese coal imports tripled year-over-year from August to September. China imported about 41 million tons last year, Bloomberg data show. In the first six months of this year alone, China imported 48 million tons of coal.
According to JPMorgan Chase & Co., China’s coal imports may double as utilities and miners such as Datang International Power Generation, China Shenhua Energy and China Coal Energy increase overseas purchases. As a result, Chinese coal imports may exceed 100 million metric tons in 2009 and rise to 200 million tons annually over the next several years. And Asian consumption is expected to increase to 8 billion tons from 6 billion tons in the next 20 years.
It all adds up to more pressure on global coal supply.
Related Posts
- What Recession? Coking Coal and Steel Prices Are Rising (03/05/10)
- 3 Stocks in Gold, Coal and Lumber (09/02/10)
- China Continues to Devour Copper (04/21/10)
- Monday News and Views (11/09/09)
- Gold Breakout! (01/11/10)
{ 1 trackback }
{ 0 comments… add one now }