Total U.S. coal production for the week ended Dec. 15 increased 0.9% year over year to 15.5 million tons from 15.3 million tons, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

For the 52 weeks ended Dec. 15, production was 752.1 million tons, representing a year-over-year decrease of 4.6%, while year-to-date coal output slipped 2.8% year over year to 724.3 million tons.

The western region's coal production for the week reached 8.6 million tons, up less than 1% from the prior year's 8.5 million tons. Data for the western region covers Powder River Basin mines.

Coal production from Appalachian mines totaled 4.1 million tons, growing 3.8% from the year-ago week's 4.0 million tons.

The interior region's production fell 1.4% to 2.8 million tons. Interior region data covers mines in the Illinois Basin.

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