Weekly US coal production totaled 15.9 million st in the week ended December 22, reaching the 2018 peak in weekly production unless the final week of the year tallies higher, data from the US Energy Information Administration showed Thursday.
This was the largest weekly production amount since the week ended September 2, 2017 with production of 16.4 million st.
Total US production in week 51 rose 3% from the prior week and increased 4.4% from the year-ago week. The rise was aided by week on week increases across all four basins - Central Appalachian, Northern Appalachian, Illinois Basin, and the Powder River Basin - along with production increase from three of the four basin from the corresponding 2017 week.
Production in Wyoming & Montana, which is largely made up of Powder River Basin coal, totaled over 7 million st, up 4.2% from the prior week and up 3% from the year-ago week. Through 51 weeks of the year production totaled nearly 334 million st, with annualized production expected to be over 341 million st.
CAPP production totaled over 2 million st, up 1.2% from the prior week and up 9% from the year-ago week.
Production through 51 weeks of the year totaled nearly 96 million st, with annualized production expected to total almost 97 million st.
Production in the NAPP basin totaled over 2.1 million st, up 2.6% from the week before and down 1.6% from the year-ago week.
Production through the most recently concluded week totaled over 101 million st, while annualized production would total over 101 million st.
Weekly coal production from the Illinois Basin totaled almost 1.7 million st, up 1.5% from the prior week and up 0.4% from the corresponding 2017 week. Production through 51 weeks totaled over 85 million st.
Annualized production in the basin would total over 104 million st.
Through the first 51 weeks of the year, US coal production totals over 740 million st, and down 2.7% from the same point last year with over 760 million st.
