On Monday, National Mining Association (NMA) president and CEO Hal Quinn commented on the positive outlook for the US coal and minerals mining. He said that "The outlook for US coal and minerals mining in 2013 is positive due to clear improvements in key sectors of the US economy and the global demand for mined products, particularly in developing economies. While we see continued slow growth in the overall US GDP and another slight contraction in Europe, projected increases in domestic new-home construction and automobile sales forecast to reach 15.3 million in 2013 are buoying demand for copper, palladium, molybdenum and other metals that are vital to these sectors."
He added that "Iron ore production will benefit from infrastructure projects and stimulus spending in China, the world's biggest buyer and the purchaser of 40 percent of worldwide production of all base metals."
As for coal, Quinn said that "Demand for coal in Europe has increased--particularly in Germany and Britain--in response to higher gas prices. Demand for coal throughout Asia for electricity and steel production contributes to a robust US coal export forecast of 111 million tons in 2013.
"Longer-term, NMA expects US coal to benefit from recent and planned construction of higher efficiency coal-based power plants with higher output rates and lower emissions. The remaining coal fleet will, on average, be larger, more efficient and run at higher capacity--recovering at least 100 million tons of US coal production lost to retirements of older plants."