Central Maine Coal Co-Ops

chaploneywj wrote:it is cheapest at reading coal. Reading charges 182/ton.

And that's if they will sell it to you... There is chance they won't if your consumer, certainly can't hurt to find out. That price is going to drop to at least $130 per ton in bulk.

Hey Coalcooker,
I'm from Union Me. & will be comin g up in the spring. I am living in Pa. & would be willing to bring up 5ton of coal with me, but like the dealer said it wont be for 200 per ton. Who would drive that far put the wear & tear on your vehicle ,not to mention the GAS for nothing ? From the mines to Union has got to be 500 miles at least. Five ton at a hopefull profit of $20.00 a ton sound like a bargain to me. Buying bulk would be the way to go, but as our neighbors said you need to get some commitments & quarantees before anyone is going to take you seriously.
Mike

Ok, I have been doing a little research and reading all the comments on here and here is my take. I found out today that my supplier has a truck coming back empty to Machias. So he loads up with however much coal he thinks he will sell. If he is paying around $182/ton and he is selling to me at $288.75/ton then he is making $106.75/ton. Sounds like a lot until you figure that he has to truck it,(I know the truck was coming anyway.) store it, (he has a hugh new steel building.) handle it, (load it up for the guys that want a few bags.) and have his money tied up until it sells. If I buy 22 tons at $288.75/ton it will cost me $6352.00. If I buy 22 tons at $182/ton and pay my independent trucker friend $2.00/mile to get it here it will cost me approx. $5404.00 or $245.64/ton. That is a savings of $948.00. If I burn 4 tons a year it will take 5 1/2 years to burn it and the savings are $172.36/year. This is before I get it offloaded presumably for free and then get it on my truck one ton at a time and trucked home and stored. Maybe I will just wait and see how this works out. I cannot save enough living this far from the mines unless the price is way lower. There is a bulk dealer up in Easton, Me. that has delivered to this area. If I go with the Axeman I am looking into maybe that is the way to go.

KLook

I made similar calculations, my cost in fuel round trip from Michigan to the breakers in coal berner's back yard is around $300.. I can haul at best 6 tons, lets say 5 tons... so I pay $140/ton and another $60/ton for fuel to transport it.. So I'm looking at $200/ton..
I paid for a semi load of coal, it saved me a lot of time on the highway, wear and tear on my truck and myself The price per ton was only a few bucks less with the large load..

But I still will drag along a trailer everytime I head east for any reason, there is no reason to not haul a load of coal back home .

Greg L

KLook wrote:Ok, I have been doing a little research and reading all the comments on here and here is my take. I found out today that my supplier has a truck coming back empty to Machias. So he loads up with however much coal he thinks he will sell. If he is paying around $182/ton and he is selling to me at $288.75/ton then he is making $106.75/ton. Sounds like a lot until you figure that he has to truck it,(I know the truck was coming anyway.) store it, (he has a hugh new steel building.) handle it, (load it up for the guys that want a few bags.) and have his money tied up until it sells. If I buy 22 tons at $288.75/ton it will cost me $6352.00. If I buy 22 tons at $182/ton and pay my independent trucker friend $2.00/mile to get it here it will cost me approx. $5404.00 or $245.64/ton. That is a savings of $948.00. If I burn 4 tons a year it will take 5 1/2 years to burn it and the savings are $172.36/year. This is before I get it offloaded presumably for free and then get it on my truck one ton at a time and trucked home and stored. Maybe I will just wait and see how this works out. I cannot save enough living this far from the mines unless the price is way lower. There is a bulk dealer up in Easton, Me. that has delivered to this area. If I go with the Axeman I am looking into maybe that is the way to go.

KLook

where are you getting the price of $182 a ton? I thought it was more like $140 at the breaker?

i'm lucky, iv'e got a friend in the southern part of central ny he gets it for me @170 a ton. it's very close to his house and he brings it to me when where going snowmobiling. we put it in two 4 x 4 x 2' boxes on a pallet. I use my tractor to take them off and put them into my truck.

if it was me I wouldn't be looking for a co op i'd just buy the truck load myself. it's only going to cost more next year and the year after.

i wonder if you could fill up a 20' shipping container to the top without it coming apart and have it trucked back on someone's return trip? 20 x 8 x 7 / 40 = 28 tons

I think Klook is buying bagged coal, not bulk..

Greg L

I know the bulk price is less. It is around 142 or so for rice, but you still have to pay the trucker to Maine. We have looked into Bulk and the trucking is even more. The problem is the trucker have no return load for a bulk truck. If you want cheep coal in Maine it has to be shipped by rail. It is our third year in business and we are just now selling enough coal to look into rail. To ship rail you need to order 100 ton more of one size. As soon as I can make it cost effective I will be doing so. Then we can get you a better deal. For now coal customers are so spread out it is hard to give large load deals.

Bill

Bill, where is your coal business located and what is its name?

i too would be interested in getting my coal cheaper,so count me in too.be it bagged or bulk.

Bill,

Never thought about the no return trip for bulk. That explains why I can buy bagged coal cheaper than I can bulk here in Maine.

Were in Gouldsboro. Downeast coal and stoves.
Bill

I think the question has been answered but I got the $182 a ton from the dealer that put it in a previous thread. That is the same kind as as am burning currently. It seems that prices are hard to nail down even in a forum like this. No one seems to have a hard and fast number. Yes I use bagged coal, it is all that is available locally. And you explain why with the volumes stated to get it on a train. Of course we are ripping up our tracks for horses, hippies, joggers, hippie hikers, hippie birders, hippie dippie's, atv's, etc. That is not quite fair, our tracks have degraded to the point that S. Maine would really howl about repairing them. Enough of that, I don't need to start a new topic in this one! The guy in Easton must get it from Quebec prehaps. I will call and get some info from him.

Klook

And Bill, I purchased from you last year.

Of course we are ripping up our tracks for horses, hippies, joggers, hippie hikers, hippie birders, hippie dippie's, atv's, etc. That is not quite fair, our tracks have degraded to the point that S. Maine would really howl about repairing them.

Ummm, what have you got against hippies?

Nothing other then this area is overrun with 40 years of trust fund babies, back to nature nuts, and kids with no worldly experience saving whales, just to name a few. Oh, and they think this is a wonderful area to live, except for the natives that already live here. I use the word loosely. It covers a lot of people we have moving here and trying to make it just like the place they left.