Washington (Platts)--20Jun2014/505 pm EDT/2105 GMT

US coal stockpiles essentially held steady at 141 million st in the week that ended Thursday, but are likely to begin declining in the coming weeks as coal burn increases with summer demand, according to Bentek Energy.

Bentek, a unit of Platts, said Friday it estimates US coal stockpiles will decline to 137.8 million st in the final week of June and 136.1 million st in the first week of July, based on increased coal consumption.

In the week that ended June 19, Bentek said coal consumption grew 1% week on week to 17.3 million st. Consumption increased 9% in the PJM Interconnection footprint, but declined slightly in the Midcontinent Independent System Operator market and in the West.

Despite a 4% week-on-week gain in coal production, coal stockpiles are still 18.5% below the same time a year ago, and roughly down the same amount when compared with the minimum of the range of the last five years.

--Andrew Moore, andrew.moore@platts.com
--Edited by Keiron Greenhalgh, keiron.greenhalgh@platts.com

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