On September 22, Donald Trump reaffirmed his intent to revive the American coal industry - without many details on how to do it. What influences the price and demand for coal? Can Donald Trump influence the forces behind these market drivers?
We nominate these four factors as the most important drivers of coal prices: production and demand for steel, because the coal industry sells and exports metallurgical coal used in steel production; demand for electricity, insofar as much electricity is still generated from coal; Chinese government interference in the steel and metallurgical coal markets, because China is the world's largest steel producer and most of the companies there are state owned; and, lastly, the price of natural gas because coal competes directly with natural gas in the electric generation market .... http://www.zerohedge.com
