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Glimmers of hope for UK Coal

By Tom Mcghie
Updated: 09:46 EDT, 22 August 2010

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Uk coal hopes this week's announcement of dismal first-half losses of £90m - 10% worse than the same period last year - will mark a turning point in its fortunes.

Output up: Demand for coal is rising.

There are good reasons to believe that there will be no repetition of the disastrous geological problems that have plagued the company's deep-mining production.

Coal output for the last few months at Daw Mill near Coventry, at Kellingley, North Yorkshire, and at Thoresby, in Nottinghamshire, has been steadily increasing.

The company is expecting an output of about 7.6m tons, nearly 600,000 more than last year.

There are welcome signs that the demand for coal has recovered after the recession and that coal prices are again rising.

Perhaps even more importantly, most of the company's contracts have now been renegotiated or will have been by the end of the year.

The second arm of UK Coal, its increasingly important property business, should also start to make more of a contribution after values were drastically reduced last year.

The company is also expecting a number of favourable decisions on the planning front, allowing it to further develop its land bank.

It is understood that UK Coal may soon dispose of about 30,000 acres of its 40,000 acre strong agricultural land bank, which should help to slash losses by the end of the year.

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