coal terminal for Radio Island, near 

 the State Port in Morehead City. The 

 capacity of the 77-acre site would be 

 five million tons per year initially, 20 

 million tons projected. The company 

 plans a completion date of 1984, and is 

 expected to file in February for per- 

 mits to build its $60 million facility. 

 Permits could be approved as early as 

 July, but are contingent upon the 

 state's approval of both a port 

 development plan and a study by the 

 Department of Transportation. The 



Coastal Resources Commission, which 

 last year reclassified Radio Island as a 

 "rural port", did so on the condition 

 that the plan and the study first 

 resolve land-use and transportation 

 problems associated with developing 

 the site for handling bulk products. 



• Alla-Ohio Valley Coals, Inc. has 

 developed a $4.5 million dollar ter- 

 minal on a site it leases at the State 

 Port in Morehead City. The company 

 began operating at the site in April, 

 1981, and handled about one million 



tons before shipments were suspended 

 in November, 1981, when the company 

 filed under Chapter 11 of the 

 bankruptcy law. The terminal has a 

 capacity of about three million tons a 

 year. The company says that it intends 

 to resume shipments and honor its 

 lease with the state, which expires in 

 1984. The company, which now owns 

 the only coal export facility in the 

 state, has also proposed developing a 

 10-to-15-million-ton facility on Radio 

 Island. 



For now, more fizzle than steam in coal market 



Sam Holcomb is on the spot. Last 

 year, his company's new coal terminal 

 opened to mixed reviews in Carteret 

 County. Then, in November, the 

 operation shut down to reorganize un- 

 der Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy 

 laws. Now, the company's future is in 

 the hands of its creditors and referees, 

 and the coal waits in piles while reces- 

 sion and a weak European market dim 

 last year's euphoria over coal. 



Holcomb is the regional manager for 

 Alla-Ohio Valley Coals, a parent com- 

 pany of 28 coal firms. Eight of those 

 firms have filed to reorganize, and one 

 of them is the Morehead City Coal 

 Terminal. 



Photo by Steven Wilson 



"We're optimistic that the 

 Morehead City facility will pull 

 through in good shape," Holcomb 

 says. "That terminal is the flagship of 

 our company, because it is the only ex- 

 port terminal we own. It is critical in 

 the company's planning." 



But Alla-Ohio's troubles were only 

 the first in a series of sour notes 

 sounded this winter about the 

 prospects for a booming coal industry 

 in North Carolina. An oil glut slowed 

 European power plants' conversion 

 from oil to coal. Recession wiped out 

 the spot market for coal. Polish coal 

 mines reopened after being shut down 

 much of last year. 



Alla-Ohio's Sarri Holcomb at home in Cary, N.C. 



And, there were signs the nation was 

 overdeveloping its export terminals. 

 Fortune magazine reported in 

 December that "if all the proposed 

 coal terminals are built, the U. S. will 

 have coal-loading capacity of 628.5 

 million tons per year — vastly in excess 

 of what is needed." The magazine's 

 report didn't take into account the 

 seven or more terminals proposed for 

 North Carolina. But it did predict that 

 many of the proposed projects around 

 the country will never be built. 



Because of these reports, some state 

 officials are wondering aloud if the 

 alarm over a coal boom hasn't been 

 premature. Others argue that plan- 

 ning now will help head off other grow- 

 ing pains in the state's future develop- 

 ment. 



Will there be enough coal business to 

 go around? 



"The world coal market is cyclical," 

 Holcomb says. "It has peaks and 

 valleys. It will be the companies who 

 can get long-term contracts that will 

 survive. There will be some casualties, 

 but nobody feels that the market is not 

 going to come up." 



Despite his company's financial 

 woes, Holcomb says Alla-Ohio's early 

 start has given it several options and a 

 jump on the competition. 



"We still have a prime interest in 

 developing a bigger terminal on Radio 

 Island," he says. "But if that doesn't 

 come to pass, because of transporta- 

 tion problems or some other reason, we 

 could still be very profitable where we 

 are. We could bring in one unit train 

 plus a few other cars a day, just as 

 we've been doing, ship two million tons 

 a year, and make a profit." 



