
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 28, 1990                   TAG: 9006280100
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

COAL PRODUCTION MAY HIT NEW HIGH THIS YEAR

U.S. coal production is expected to set a record for the fourth year in a row in 1990, the National Coal Association has predicted. U.S. miners will have dug slightly more than 1 billion tons of bituminous, lignite and anthracite coal by year's end, the NCA said. That's about 22 million tons more than in 1989.

Consumption of U.S. coal will reach 997 million tons this year, 7 million tons more than 1989, the group said.

Bituminous coal production in Virginia through May was 22.64 million tons, 1.2 percent more than the same period of 1989, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reports.

If Virginia mines maintain their pace for the rest of the year, they will set a state record. Coal production in Virginia in 1989 was a record 48.4 million tons, a 5.4 percent increase over 1988.

The NCA's economics committee predicts the gross national product will grow 1.9 percent in 1990 and the Federal Reserves industrial production index will slow to 1.2 percent from 1989's 3.4 percent.

Under those conditions, coal consumption by electric utilities is expected to increase but the amount of coal used in steel making will dip. - Staff report

by CNB