Does China Really Need US Coal?
From Triple Pundit
By Bill DiBenedetto
There are many reasons to oppose exporting U.S. coal to Asia through five planned terminals in the Pacific Northwest, including huge health, safety and environmental risks.
But what if the entire underlying economic rationale—China’s supposed insatiable demand for U.S. coal exports—rests on a house of cards? What if that perceived and anticipated market, even if it once existed, now no longer exists?
That’s the theme of a Greenpeace report issued this week, The Myth of China’s Endless Coal Demand: A missing market for U.S. Exports.
“The U.S. coal industry – reeling from sagging domestic demand, plummeting profits, and tanking stock prices – is desperate for a new market for its wares, and it thinks it has found one in China,” Greenpeace says. “But in reality, the Chinese market for U.S. coal exports may dry up before major new U.S. coal shipments ever reach its ports.”
