Total U.S. coal production for the week ended April 18 decreased 41.5% year over year to 8.6 million tons from 14.7 million tons, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

For the 52 weeks ended April 18, production was 658.7 million tons, representing a year-over-year decline of 11.9%, while year-to-date coal output slipped 19.6% year over year to 173.6 million tons.

The western region's coal production for the week reached 4.6 million tons, posting a 40.4% decrease from the prior year's 7.8 million tons. Data for the western region covers Powder River Basin mines.

Coal production from Appalachian mines totaled 2.4 million tons, declining 43.6% from the year-ago week's 4.3 million tons.

The interior region's production decreased 41.3% to 1.6 million tons, compared to 2.7 million tons a year ago. Interior region data covers mines in the Illinois Basin.

The EIA's production data is derived from rail carload estimates.