It is reported that Union Pacific coal loadings from the western basins faced increasing difficulty as the month progressed, the railroad said in its weekly loadings report. The railroad is coping with unscheduled utility outages and mine production problems that are expected to last well into May.

Union Pacific said that loadings from the Powder River Basin increased sequentially this week despite the challenges at some generating stations, with UP loading 212 trains in the week ended May 2. For the month of April, the western railroad loaded 916 trains from the PRB, which far exceeded the 835 trains UP loaded in April 2009. The railroad experienced 117 missed loading opportunities from the PRB in April, with the majority due to problems at utilities.

Colorado and Utah loadings declined sequentially in the most recent week, with Colorado mines absorbing much of the decline. While Utah output declined by two trains sequentially to 21 loadings, the state originated significantly more trains this April than it had a year ago.

Utah mines loaded 93 trains last month, compared with 51 from April 2009. Colorado mines did not fare as well as their western bituminous coal counterpart to the West. The state's loadings declined by 32 trains from last April to 136 trains loaded last month. The Craig branch mines have been particularly hard hit, loading only nine trains in the most recent week, down from 13 in the week prior and 18 in the year-ago week. Overall loadings from Colorado declined to 26 trains in the week ended May 2, the state's lowest output since it loaded 25 trains during the 2009 Christmas holiday week.

(Sourced from Argus Media)