While crude oil prices has been spasming (trying to find a direction) the last few days after hitting an all time high last week, coal continues to march ahead. globalCOAL’s NEWC weekly index reports coal trading at $138.35/tonne for the week of May 23 versus $134.85 the week before. The record high was $139.16 back on February 15th.

Problems on both the supply and demand sides continue to support higher coal prices: