Quote (Djunior @ 2 Feb 2024 13:00)

You won't get an answer, he will dodge or call that Whataboutisms

Quote (InsaneBobb @ Feb 3 2024 03:02am)

I don't care what he says, he's irrelevant. How you been, brother? :D

Quote (Djunior @ 2 Feb 2024 13:10)

I'm still here wasting time in PARD ^^

Quote (InsaneBobb @ 2 Feb 2024 21:01)

This is false. The bulk of US Coal is sold to China because any other use becomes a "climate issue". They use a bulk of the coal to produce raw steel that they sell back to us at a heavy markup to be used in everything from our naval fleet to consumer coffee mugs.

You know nothing.

Quote (Malopox @ 2 Feb 2024 13:12)

Kpler data shows China bought 1.5M MT thermal coal from the United States in 2023 which is less than a fraction of a percent of US total thermal coal production (594M MT).

US doesn't produce much coking coal (50M MT, none to China, coking mostly goes to India, Netherlands, Brasil and Japan (JERA)). Coking coal is mostly Russian (100M MT - 70% consumed domestically) and Australian thing (about 160M MT all exported to China smelters).

Modern steel smelters use arc furnaces powered by hydro dams / nuclear reactors and coking coal is slowly being phased away. Thermal coal generation is on the rise though as India and China still builds quite a bit of those (although China will phase coal out once their nuclear power station fleet comes fully online).

Quote (InsaneBobb @ 2 Feb 2024 21:15)

Fine. The bulk of US coal export is to china. And what we export is greater than what we use. Tell me, what is the "production total" going to? We record what we use to coal for on-shore. We record how much we export. The production totals you're listing don't add up. Where are they being used?

Quote (Malopox @ 2 Feb 2024 13:29)

Well there are two major classifications of coal:

First one (low quality that burns bad) is called thermal coal - that is used by 217 thermal coal stations US still has operational. US produces half a billion metric tonnes of that thermal coal and imports additional 5-10M MT (for PADD5 because it’s easier logistically). US exports about 30M MT to Japan, India, Netherlands and some other small destinations like Philippines.

The other type that burns very good (has high calorie value and low impurities) is called coking and is used to run steel smelters. US produces 50M MT of that and exports about 40M MT to countries I mentioned. None of that coking coal was exported to China. US doesn’t have many steel smelters anymore due to environmental reasons so steel smelting has been offshored to India, Indonesia, Russia, China and so on. You don’t need as much steel these days as we mostly use aluminium and various alloys for cars, planes and stuff which is smelted in electrolyzers.

There is the third type called the antracite - which is the top creme-de-la-creme stuff that is not usually burned, but used for chemical applications such as production of cathodes and such, but reserves of anthracite’s are pretty rare.

Here is a Wikipedia list of all US thermal coal stations operational:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_coal-fired_power_stations_in_the_United_States

US Coal production, consumption and trade data is public and well accounted for due to environmental activism.

Quote (InsaneBobb @ 2 Feb 2024 21:32)

We export raw coal to china. They can process their own coking coal. Our ability to produce coking coal is nearly gone, due to our environmental regulations. You've drank the koolaid, haven't you?

Quote (InsaneBobb @ Feb 2 2024 02:37pm)

Energy is pointless without production.

Quote (Malopox @ 2 Feb 2024 13:39)

I have drank a lot of fizzy and coloured drinks lately, could’ve been koolaid, I’m not sure.

One thing I’m sure of is that I’ve spent considerable amount of years getting paid to memorize all things related to export and import of hydrocarbons worldwide.

In the whole of 2023 United States shipped 1.5m MT thermal coal to China which is comically low compared to total US production of thermal coal.

If you put it to size - 1.5M is about 8-9 Capesize bulkers, a good Wednesday afternoon of work at Glencores coal desk.