London (Platts)--4Oct2007

With Russians, Ukrainians and Romanians nosing around US producers for
metallurgical coal supplies, and the Australians continuing to struggle to
meet commitments to Asian coking coal customers, the market couldn't be better
for US met coal, the Alpha Natural Resources top executive told Wall Street
analysts.

And, even though US utilities are still claiming adequate stockpiles, the
domestic steam coal market is picking up too, Michael Quillen, Alpha chairman
and CEO, said at the 2007 Davenport Metals & Mining Symposium in New York. 

Alpha has completed 78% of its steam business at $47.30/short ton for 2008,
Quillen said. "We made a conscious decision to not do" what its competitors
were doing, he said; that is, signing business at $45/st.

Alpha has instead chosen to leave tons in the ground, he said. "That market
has moved now."

"We know consumption is up 20 million tons, we know exports are up," Quillen
said, "but inventories are still up... Inventories are what utilities are
banking on right now; they continue to quote those back to us."

Quillen cited newly released Energy Information Administration projections
that say US utility coal consumption year-to-date is up by 20 million st
compared to 2006 year-to-date, and coal exports are up another 5 million st
year-on-year.

Meanwhile, domestic production has declined by nearly 14 million st in the
same period, while imports have increased relatively modestly at less than
500,000 st year-to-date, creating, Quillen said, "a 38 million ton favorable
swing in supply-demand balance from last year."