Could the Price Per Ton Actually Drop???

Here's a hypothetical.......

Say the cost of heating oil and gasoline starts dropping a lot (yeah right), but anyways would this help lower the cost for coal, cord wood, etc?

What say you?

Thanks
Normy

Anything is possible!

Yes anything can happen BUT

Coal for most of this fall is most likely already pretty much locked in for many reasons.

MAYBE if you are buying some late season (Feb March?) you might see the price drop.

Gas has dropped and continues too and I am glad to see this BUT not due to the reasons for it really (Slumping dollar and economy on a global scale)

maybe i'm wrong... For all you who haven't bought your coal yet I'll hope i'm wrong so you guys save some cash maybe!

Its just my opinion that you won't see much if any drop for many months.

I feel it is like everything else, if it drops it will be very little. Once it has reached a price it is pretty much here to stay.

I agree with the price of coal staying at one level. I used to burn coal about 13-14 years ago. I stopped because the price of oil went below $1 a gallon but coal stayed the same. Now I'm getting back into burning coal. Coal does not follow the price of oil or other fuels. If it did we would be paying $1000 a ton for it.

I drove a gasoline truck for 2.5 years. My boss would buy gas futures (42,000 gallons or 1000 barrels is a future or a contract same thing) off the stock market. As the price of gas, diesel, heating oil, kero. etc. goes up, the profit margin goes way down. I have seen gas stations selling gas for .04 cents over cost! This is NO BULLS---! 9000 gals in one truckload @ .04 = $360.00 per truckload. try making payroll taxes mortgage electric bill etc.However now that the price of gas is going down, the profit margin is going way up. See for yourself. Turn on the Bloomburg channel. watch the scrolling across the bottom of the page. As of now 8:04 am the wholesale price is actually $2.0489 gal. The station pays about .05 cents more than that number to the wholesaler. Then there is 17.4 cents federal tax gal. and 24.4 cents Pa. tax on gas. look at the price on the pump and do the math. Competition amongst the stations will slowly bring down the price I would have to believe that coal works the same way or very similarly to that. So I would have to say we probably won't see a drop anytime soon.

Possibly in some of these outlying areas but the cost of anthracite coal at the breaker has followed the same pattern for the last 20 years and probably much longer. The cost you are paying now might see a slight decrease in the late spring and summer. Between mid august and mid to late September it will go up. Generally whatever the cost in late September is what it will be throughout the season. Mid season price increases are rare but not unheard of.

The cost has always been quite stable without wild fluctuations but instead with expected modest increases or decreases. Now if the cost of diesel keeps jumping all over the place that will change but only because of the cost of shipping and other expenses hence the reason outlying areas might see a break if the cost of diesel drops.