India’s Essar Group Ltd., a conglomerate with interests in steel, energy, construction, and shipping, acquires a top U.S. coal producer, Trinity Coal, for $600 million.
Essar Minerals now has ownership of 200 million tons in coal reserves in the Central Appalachian region of the United States. The reserves are split between “metallurgical” coal used in steel production and “thermal” coal used to make electricity. It currently produces approximately 7 million tons of coal annually and plans to ramp up production to 10 million tons per year. Trinity operates six mining complexes with a total of 10 surface mines, three underground shaft mines and six “highwall” miner units. The firm is based in Scott Depot, West Virginia and employs 650.
Essar has steel-making operations in North America, with a steelworks in Ontario and a plant planned for the U.S. in Minnesota, via the acquisition of Minnesota Steel two years ago. Trinity’s thermal production is sold to regional U.S. utilities; it is unclear whether Essar will export American coal to India.
The seller was private equity firm, Denham Capital, acquired Trinity in January 2005 and during its ownership, Trinity more than doubled reserves as well as increased productive capacity from approximately 1.7 million tons per year to 9 million tons per year.
