Rio Tinto: Coal producers focusing on Asia markets

As coal-fired electricity generation continues to decline in the U.S. amid cheap, plentiful natural-gas supplies and tougher federal air-pollution rules, coal suppliers are increasingly aiming for China and other Asian markets, said the top executive at Rio Tinto PLC /quotes/comstock/13*!rio/quotes/nls/rio （RIO 71.35, -0.17, -0.24%） .

Australia-based coal and minerals giant Rio Tinto has sold off its assets in the U.S. as part of an effort to take advantage of fast-growing Asian demand, said Chief Executive Tom Albanese. He said the global coal market has shifted to "seaborne" supplies, which can be shipped by vessel anywhere in the world, as opposed to resources developed to serve a specific facility.

"We're going to put our bets in the seaborne market," Albanese said, speaking during a conference in Santa Barbara, Calif., hosted by The Wall Street Journal. "If you can get it on a ship, it's a globally fungible commodity."

Albanese said a boom in the U.S. natural gas market, driven by new technologies that allow producers to obtain gas from shale rock formations, has changed the U.S. electricity market toward gas and away from coal.