Arch Resources Will Cut Coal Output At Prolific Western Mines By 50%

Major U.S. coal mining company Arch Resources will slash output from the prolific Powder River Basin coal mining region in Wyoming and Montana by as much as 50% over the next two to three years, part of the firm’s plan to exit the thermal coal market, Arch said today as it unveiled third quarter results.

The second-largest coal mining firm in the U.S., Arch has been rushing to get out of the market for coal sold to power plants (“thermal coal”) since late September, when a federal court rejected its attempt to a form joint venture with rival Peabody Energy
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, the largest coal producer in the U.S. The proposed joint venture in the Powder River Basin — the source of some 40% of all coal mined in the U.S. — would have allowed Arch and Peabody to cut costs and better defend against a repeat of earlier bankruptcies. But the court ruled that the joint venture’s market dominance would have stifled competition.

St. Louis-based Arch will instead focus on the market for coal used in steel-making (“metallurgical coal”) at its mining operations in the eastern U.S., a strategy it has been exploring since before the court’s September ruling. The metallurgical coal market is much smaller than the thermal coal market, but it is better insulated against the relentless economic forces that have eroded coal’s market share around the world. Energy companies now often prefer to burn natural gas or construct new wind and solar farms rather than feed more anthracite into coal plants, but there are few substitutes for energy-dense coal in the steel-making process.

The potential halving of coal production at Arch’s Powder River Basin mines will come on top of what has already been a steep decline from 75 million tons of output at its Powder River Basin mines in 2019 to an expected level of less than 55 million tons in 2020.

“We view this systematic winding down of our thermal operations — in a way that allows us to continue to harvest cash and to fund long-term closure costs with ongoing operating cash flows — as the right business solution in the event we are unable to find an appropriate buyer,” said Paul Lang, Arch’s chief executive officer.

The company earlier today reported a net loss during the third quarter of $191.5 million, compared with net income of $106.8 million in the same period a year ago. The results included a non-cash impairment of $163.1 million, the result of a write-down of assets at several of its legacy thermal operations.

Lang also said the company is less than a year away from starting up its Leer South mine in West Virginia, which will add to its suite of metallurgical coal mines.

The company’s share price on the New York Stock Exchange was little changed from its prior market close. It has a market value of $550 million.

Demand for thermal coal has been badly hit by the pandemic. Production of electricity from coal power stations is often the most expensive and therefore the first source of generation to be kicked off the grid when demand flags. The pandemic also undercut demand for metallurgical coal, but steel prices have now increased more than 30 percent from their recent low and most idled steel-making facilities are now back in action. In North America, 18 of 27 blast furnaces are now operating, up from just 12 at the low point, while European steel-makers have restarted around half of the 25 million tons of capacity they had idled earlier in the year, Arch said.