Western Railroad Discussion > Decker Coal laying off 75 permanently...

Decker is located just across the Montana state line north of Sheridan, WY and is served by BNSF via the Dutch Sub. The mine will be laying off 75 of 132 employees starting in January. I'm not sure how they will continue to mine with this reduction of staff.

http://www.sheridanmedia.com/news/sheridan-media-exclusive-decker-coal-announces-mass-layoff60875

Paul Birkholz
Sheridan, WY

mtnwestrail Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Decker is located just across the Montana state
> line north of Sheridan, WY and is served by BNSF
> via the Dutch Sub. The mine will be laying off 75
> of 132 employees starting in January. I'm not
> sure how they will continue to mine with this
> reduction of staff.
>
> http://www.sheridanmedia.com/news/sheridan-media-e
> xclusive-decker-coal-announces-mass-layoff60875

While this is sad to see. Until the price of natural gas goes up you are going to see more of this. It has nothing to do with anything other than the low prices of gas at this time.

J.

And get the nimbies to get realistic up in the PNW!

Rob

Posted from iPhone

Anyone have a handle on the big buyers at Decker? That might shed some light on why the decline in sales.
Roger B

I completely agree with Mr. Ferris that most of this is due to the price of natural gas. Just as we have seen with many of these reductions at mines across the country. The irony is Decker told the Sheridan Chamber of Commerce this past summer that they were looking to expand and add up to 60 jobs.

Roger, I think most of the coal from Decker goes to Superior, WI as C-DKMSUD trains. I think it is then loaded onto ships for delivery along the Great Lakes? I am sure someone from the area could fill us in.

Paul Birkholz
Sheridan, WY

Paul, depends on how they are set up. If they contract stripping and maintenance, maybe even blasting and train-loading, not unheard of, with their own employees just loading and hauling coal, this could mean as little as cutting production in half. And I have to laugh whenever I read that a coal company is laying off permanently. I remember one dreadful Friday when we laid off somewhere around 400 people, two-thirds of the workforce, "permanently." And the personnel manager and two secretaries were on the phone frantically recalling half of them the next Monday, most of the rest were back to work within a month. Ok, so 6 years later we did lay off almost everybody permanently, every once in awhile it does happen....

Bruce

Some of the layoff / rehire etc may flow from whether the coal produced in a facility was intended for the spot market or the contract market.

Spot sales of almost anything are based on whether the phone has rung in the last few hours or days. Contract stuff may be a year, two years etc of expected sales.

(Here in NJ, we have a few gasoline refineries. When there's a production surplus at the refinery, the Gas N Go, Delta, etc may be a dime to 15 cents less than the Exxon, Shell, etc who have a contract price and supply guarantee. When supplies are tight, there's no gas for the spot market, only for the contract holders.)

The price of natural gas is only part of it. The cost of complying with never ending new EPA requirements (the so called "war on coal") is also driving up the cost of burning coal. But for this added cost many coal plants can compete with gas, even at low prices.

Good point about subcontracting some of the work out, Bruce. I know that the loading is handled by RailLink? and has been for years.

I think the main customer for Decker is Detroit Edison at Superior.

This seems to be some internal battle between the owners as one wanted to expand the mine and the other does not - for whatever reason. The losers in the battle are the employees.

Paul Birkholz
Sheridan, WY

After the oil and gas companies get out all of the "cheep" gas they are going to go into the water business selling water to people just loike they have us "hooked" on gas. Because of all the Fracking used to get the gas and destroying the water supply. They are going to slide out of town in the night just like they moved in. The underground water supply is being destroyed and we don't even know it. It will be too late when it is "discovered" and the gas companies will be long gone. All for "cheep" natural gas. We have coal reserves to last a long time and a lot of the power plants have installed scrubbers to clean the exhaust air. If the power companies would get off of their butts and install scrubbers it would create jobs and be good for the environment. Plus it would keep a LOT of folks working and get the economy going.
Mike

lapklub Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> After the oil and gas companies get out all of the
> "cheep" gas they are going to go into the water
> business selling water to people just loike they
> have us "hooked" on gas. Because of all the
> Fracking used to get the gas and destroying the
> water supply. They are going to slide out of town
> in the night just like they moved in. The
> underground water supply is being destroyed and we
> don't even know it. It will be too late when it
> is "discovered" and the gas companies will be long
> gone. All for "cheep" natural gas. We have coal
> reserves to last a long time and a lot of the
> power plants have installed scrubbers to clean the
> exhaust air. If the power companies would get off
> of their butts and install scrubbers it would
> create jobs and be good for the environment. Plus
> it would keep a LOT of folks working and get the
> economy going.
> Mike

Most of the big electric power plants already have their scrubbers or other pollution gear in operation. It's the smaller, older, less efficient plants that are running out of time, and are shutting down. It's not worth investing huge amounts in a plant that won't be able to pay off the investment.

Not a lot different than an older beater car that needs a thousand dollars of work to make it legal. Same decision and it ends up in the same junk pile.

I would need to do more research in the twinports yahoogroup and a few other places to confirm, but as pointed out, a lot of Decker's Coal went to Midwest Energy Resources Company in Superior. As I recall, Midwest Energy lost a large contract when Ontario power closed some of their coal fired power units. Midwest picked up some business this shipping season with European customers; the coal leaves Superior by ship to a port in Quebec (Quebec City if I recall) where it is unloaded and stored until there is enough for a larger ocean going ship. These layoffs follow the closing of the St. Lawrence Seaway/Great Lakes shipping season. Wonder if there is a connection there?

Todd Busse

mtnwestrail Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Roger, I think most of the coal from Decker goes
> to Superior, WI as C-DKMSUD trains. I think it is
> then loaded onto ships for delivery along the
> Great Lakes? I am sure someone from the area
> could fill us in.

trb Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I would need to do more research in the twinports
> yahoogroup and a few other places to confirm, but
> as pointed out, a lot of Decker's Coal went to
> Midwest Energy Resources Company in Superior. As
> I recall, Midwest Energy lost a large contract
> when Ontario power closed some of their coal fired
> power units. Midwest picked up some business this
> shipping season with European customers; the coal
> leaves Superior by ship to a port in Quebec
> (Quebec City if I recall) where it is unloaded and
> stored until there is enough for a larger ocean
> going ship. These layoffs follow the closing of
> the St. Lawrence Seaway/Great Lakes shipping
> season. Wonder if there is a connection there?
>
> Todd Busse
>
> mtnwestrail Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
>
> > Roger, I think most of the coal from Decker
> goes
> > to Superior, WI as C-DKMSUD trains. I think it
> is
> > then loaded onto ships for delivery along the
> > Great Lakes? I am sure someone from the area
> > could fill us in.

Sigh....in this global economy it does get complicated, doesn't it!?!!

Wonder how long it will be before we find some US utility buying back US coal from China that was originally shipped to, oh, Germany, then to India, then China, and back to the US. Bound to happen............

Wonder if the Fed's will allow China to build the $2B coal-to-gas facility in Wyoming??