February 26, 2025 - Recent news of 165 miners laid off at the Leer South Mine in Barbour County was blamed on a softening of the market for metallurgical coal. West Virginia Coal Association President Chris Hamilton acknowledged there are a couple of reasons for the uncertainty in the market at the present time. He did not, however, think those would be long term issues for the industry.

“There is a softening of the market right now. Hopefully it won’t last long, but more pertinent to the met coal being exported around the world is the whole issue of tariffs which needs to play out more,” said Hamilton.

Chris Hamilton

President Donald Trump has indicated he’s ready to level tariffs on a number of countries, particularly China, for products sent to the United States. It’s likely those countries will reciprocate with tariffs on U.S. exports like coal. West Virginia coal currently goes around the world, but according to Hamilton the Asian Rim nations, including China, are where a lot of it winds up.

“There’s a lot of anxiety over the proposed tariffs, so we’re almost in a holding pattern with some of those coals exported or set for exportation,” he explained.

The other issue, according to Hamilton, is there was already a lot of coal on the ground which softens the demand worldwide.

“There are substantial stockpiles right now around the word. All of those things are converging to cause a little bit of a hiccup, but we don’t anticipate those things will impact coal exports in the long term,” he said.