April 8, 2019 - U.S. weekly coal production was estimated to be 10.5 million st for the week ended March 30, down 6.6% from the previous week and down 26.3% from the year-ago week, U.S. Energy Information Administration data showed Thursday.

This was the fifth week in a row of decreases from the year-ago week, and was the largest year-on-year drop since the final week of 2017, when output fell 28.2%.

Across the board, the four major basins dropped week on week and year on year, experiencing their lowest production levels in the first quarter of the year.

From the five-year average of almost 16 million st produced in the thirteenth week of the year, 2019 production was at a deficit of 34%.

In Q1, coal production fell 3.8% from the previous year.

Production in Wyoming and Montana, largely made up of Powder River Basin coal, dropped the most from the year-ago week, down 29.1% with output of over 4.6 million st. From the previous week, production dropped 6.5%. On an annualized basis, production from the two states would be over 306 million st, down 9.9% from 2018 output.

Central Appalachian production followed with total output of about 1.4 million st, down 26.1% from the corresponding week last year and down 9.5% week on week. CAPP output on an annualized basis would total 93.6 million st, down 2% from 2018 production.

Illinois Basin production came next, down 24.6% year over year, with almost 1.6 million st. Production fell 3.2% on week. Annualized IB production would total over 100 million st, down 4.5% from last year's production.

Northern Appalachian output totaled 1.5 million st, down 22.9% from the year-ago week and down 4.4% from the previous week. Annualized NAPP production would be 97.7 million st, down 5% from the previous year's output.

In Q1, total U.S. production was over 173 million st. Annualized U.S. production comes to about 694 million st, down 7.6% from 2018 output.