China and its expansionism

Daryl wrote:KNick, from the top of my head without checking, I can confirm that Australia does send large quantities of coal to China. I believe one reason is the type of coal. We have good quality coking coal which is needed for steel production. They also buy a lot of iron ore and natural gas.

Spacekiwi wrote:

Daryl wrote:KNick, from the top of my head without checking, I can confirm that Australia does send large quantities of coal to China. I believe one reason is the type of coal. We have good quality coking coal which is needed for steel production. They also buy a lot of iron ore and natural gas.

I can confirm it as well, as it pops up frequently in our politics as to why we aren't emulating australia and mining our coal reserves.

Of note though is that the biggest remaining are under our national parks, so thats why we aren't.....

KNick wrote:I know the coal coming out of Montana mines is low sulfur power station ready. As for where it comes from, it is strip mined from under land that supports 1 cow per 3 acres in the wet season (all one month of it) and 1 cow per ten acres the rest of the year (in a good year). If your coal is under decent country, leave it where it is.

KNick wrote:As far as point one is concerned, all that "Wyoming" coal that isn't being shipped to China goes through Billings 2 or 3 times a day on its way to Seattle. 240 to 360 coal cars a day are headed for the West Coast. 2 or 3 more trains are headed East every day. Those are just the ones from the southern Montana coal fields.

As for point 2., what is the difference in cost between US coal and Australian coal? For that matter, how does the cost of Chinese coal compare?

The coal that is actually mined in Wyoming is shipped south out of the state and I have no idea how much that is. As far as it goes, a trade delegation from China shows in Montana up a couple of times a year to negotiate for coal prices.

Relax wrote:

KNick wrote:As far as point one is concerned, all that "Wyoming" coal that isn't being shipped to China goes through Billings 2 or 3 times a day on its way to Seattle. 240 to 360 coal cars a day are headed for the West Coast. 2 or 3 more trains are headed East every day. Those are just the ones from the southern Montana coal fields.

As for point 2., what is the difference in cost between US coal and Australian coal? For that matter, how does the cost of Chinese coal compare?

The coal that is actually mined in Wyoming is shipped south out of the state and I have no idea how much that is. As far as it goes, a trade delegation from China shows in Montana up a couple of times a year to negotiate for coal prices.

There are 0 tons of coal shipped out of any Washington/Oregon port. Oregon/Washington/British Columbia do have coal powered steam turbines for generating power. Where said coal trains are going out of Montana.

Personally, I believe that by the time the port gets approved past the greenie weenie obstructionists who have this panacea idea that electricity drops out of the sky with $0 invested, China will have its new rail infrastructure in place and said coal dock won't even be used. Add in the fact that China was/is consuming Gigantic amounts of steel building its infrastructure and one has to predict how much China's internal steel production consumption will decrease.