Consol Energy CEO calls Q2 ‘challenging”
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Times have not been good for the coal industry, as a top executive at Consol Energy Inc. can attest.
“The second quarter of 2020 was the most challenging quarter I have seen in the 30-plus-year history of the Pennsylvania Mining Complex,” Jimmy Brock, president and chief executive officer of the Southpointe-based company, said Monday in the firm’s quarterly financial and operational report.
Brock added that “government-imposed lockdowns in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, both domestically and abroad, resulted in historic underutilization of our assets.”
A warm winter followed by the pandemic’s spread into the United States have suppressed demand for coal and other energy sources throughout 2020. Consol reported that it sold 2.3 million tons of coal during the second quarter, a 69% decline from 7.4 million tons sold during April-May-June period of 2019. Revenue fell from $350.6 million during the second quarter last year to $102.1 million for the same period of 2020 – a 71% plummet.
Finances caused Consol to idle Enlow Fork Mine in mid-April and curtail production at Bailey Mine. Those facilities and Harvey Mine comprise the Pennsylvania Mining Complex, located mostly in Washington and Greene counties, with a portion in Marshall County, W.Va. The company says it is the largest underground coal mine complex in North America.
The company also got $30.1 million in contract buyouts from workers.
Brock said he did see some promising signs.
“With summer weather now officially upon us and with economies beginning to reopen, we have seen shipment levels improve since the end of the second quarter. We are cautiously optimistic that this trend will continue through the second half of 2020.”