Investment bank Barclays Tuesday said most market participants believe it will be another year before any improvement is seen in the seaborne metallurgical coal market, while the bank expects US natural gas demand to pick up “significantly” in 2015 as a number of coal-fired power plants are shuttered. Barclays detailed its near-term outlook for the US coal and natural gas markets in its Global Energy Outlook for August. Fixed income analyst Matthew Vittorioso said US coal companies are a challenging place to find value due in part to weak met and thermal coal prices. “The spot price for top quality metallurgical (met) coal has been stuck down at $110-115/[mt] for a couple of quarters now and most market participants think it will be another year before things start to improve,” Vittorioso said. Article continues below… Platts Coal Trader provides the latest prices for key benchmark coals, as well as: […]