International Coal Group, Inc. (NYSE:ICO.DL)

JMJeffrey (73.11) Submitted: 9/2/2009 11:08:32 PM : Start Price: $3.12 ICO.DL Score: +326.30

Going for my last third. Coal for all it's bad publicity will still be around and widely used. Once the global economy picks up ICO should be well positioned with its increased focus on metallurgical coal to out perform the market from these prices.

Picking up another third on a distressed commodity that is in much better shape than it looks. Back when I first purchased this company their price for coal was about $42/ton I think. Profitability was around $45/ton. Their last call they mentioned that they we getting around $55/ton for the coming year. Yep, lots of profit. The even better news in my opinion is that they continue to ramp up in the highly profitable metallurgical coal area. So after about a year and a half of ownership we have the same company getting a much better price for coal with a greater percentage of the more profitable metallurgical coal selling about a $1.50/share cheaper than when I first bought it. Yeah, that's what I thought too so I bought more. Still outperform!

Here's what I wrote a year and a half ago:
America's dependence on coal is not going anywhere for the foreseeable futue. ICO has weathered a large drop in coal prices and a mining disaster (12 people died). This is mostly a commodity play on coal prices but the company is well-run and should do better than most in converting coal to cash. Distressed investor Wilbur Ross has seen the value in this little lump of coal and so have I. I'll take this coal mining company as solid value investment to get me into the black.