In the aftermath shale gas stealing march over coal as prime source of energy in USA the industry seems reconciled to permanent production rationalization.

Slicing nearly 200 million tonnes from the coal production the days when we can anticipate with a high degree of confidence that output for a given year would reach well beyond 1 billion tons appear to be gone owing to shale gas substitution or environmental regulations.

Even though the seeds of rationalization were sown just after the 2008 economic debacle its full impact has come to the fore recently. During the dark days of 2008-09 contract default by buyers had made miners careful and selective in entering Long Term contracts. However the miners waited for commercial catalyst to kindle rationalization.

Source - Strategic Research Institute

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