Washington (Platts)--4Jan2013/302 pm EST/2002 GMT

US coal production totaled about 16.5 million st in the week that ended December 29, the Energy Information Administration said Friday.

This production estimate, based on railcar loadings, is 12.8% lower than the previous week's estimate and 15.8% below output in the comparable week in 2011, EIA said.

Coal production east of the Mississippi River totaled about 7.3 million st while output west of the Mississippi totaled about 9.1 million st, it said.

US year-to-date coal production totaled 1.0157 billion st, 6.9% lower than in the comparable year-to-date coal production in 2011, EIA said.

EIA published this latest set of figures on a Friday due to the New Year's Day holiday. The agency said it would resume its regular schedule of releasing the data on the following Thursday when it puts out production totals for the week that will end Saturday on January 10.

--Keiron Greenhalgh, keiron_greenhalgh@platts.com --Edited by Katharine Fraser, katharine_fraser@platts.com

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