Coal giant Peabody Energy seeks bankruptcy protection

New York

PEABODY Energy, the world's largest publicly owned coal producer, with mines around the world from Australia to the United States, filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States on Wednesday.

The company was weighed down by the collapse of coal prices, increasing competition from natural gas and tightening regulations to control climate change.

The immediate crisis for the company, which is based in St Louis, was its inability to sustain debt payments that financed its expansion in Australia in recent years to meet expected rising demand in Asia, particularly China. China is now trying to partly wean itself off coal to improve air quality.

The bankruptcy filing came as no surprise after the company announced last month that it was delaying interest payments on two loans. It comes after a number of bankruptcy filings over the last two years by other coal companies, including industry giants like Arch Coal, Patriot Coal, W…