Coal producer Alpha to report profits

Alpha Natural Resources, the nation's top metallurgical coal producer, is due to weigh in on whether it benefited from the recovering Asian steel industry in the third-quarter.

The figures scheduled for release Tuesday also will be Abingdon, Va.-based Alpha's first since buying Maryland-based rival Foundation Coal Holdings in July.

Most U.S. coal producers have reported stronger than expected third-quarter results from improving metallurgical coal sales to steel mills in China and other Asian countries. St. Louis-based Arch Coal, for instance, suggested Friday it could double metallurgical coal sales in 2010 due to stronger export markets.

Alpha, which mines in West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Wyoming, sold 11.9 million tons of metallurgical coal in 2008.