Chinese demand is causing a mini-boom in Luzerne County, Pa. anthracite coal. The Chinese have imported 920,010 tons of metallurgical coal — or coal used in metal refining rather than for fuel — in the first quarter which is a 42 percent increase over a year earlier.
The most valuable metallurgical coal is anthracite. Pennsylvania, especially Northeast Pennsylvania, is by far the leading source of it.
The Chinese need the coal for steelmaking and have turned to Pennsylvania. Vietnam, their traditional source of anthracite, is cutting them off to use it to produce electricity for itself.
For the unemployed thinking about finding a job loading 16 tons like in the song, most of the coal today is acquired via steam shovels and surface mining. It employs about 500 people today compared to 100,000 in the 1940s.
Hat tip to Dorothy Hayer.