China and India’s consumption of metallurgical coal is lighting a fire under worldwide prices, according to the latest earnings statement from global coal producer Peabody Energy.

Peabody, which declared 2009 sales of $6bn on 244m tonnes of met and thermal coal shipped, said spot prices for met coal have jumped from $129/t in April 2009 to about $200/t currently.

China consumes about 1.9m tons of coal a year currently, and this is expected to rise by at least another 1m tons over the next decade.

That huge B.C. asset is looking better.