UPDATE 1-U.S. coal miner Peabody now shipping to China -exec

(Adds background, analyst comment, NEW YORK dateline)

BEIJING/NEW YORK, April 14 (Reuters) - Peabody Energy Corp (BTU.N: Quote, Profile, Research) is now shipping coal to China, where much of the world's demand growth is expected to occur, an executive of the U.S. coal producer said on Monday.

"We hope to become a major supplier to cover China's energy needs from Australia, Indonesia, and in the long term, Mongolia," Tayeb Tahir, president of Peabody China, told an industry conference in Beijing.

Asked if it has brought some coal into China, the world's largest producer and consumer of the fuel, he said: "We are in the process of doing so."

Tahir gave no more details and a company spokesman in St Louis was not immediately available to elaborate.

Peabody expects to produce 220 million to 240 million tons of coal this year, with about 10 percent of that mined in Australia.

The company set up an office in Beijing last year and recently forecast more than 80 percent of the growth in global coal demand is expected to come from China and India.

China alone added an estimated 96,000 megawatts of new coal-fueled power generation in 2007, representing more than 300 million tons of annual coal use, Peabody said in January.

"China's net export position continued to decline in 2007 due to growing internal demand, and the country recently halted exports due to critically low coal stockpiles," the company said. "This is an abrupt turnaround for a nation that exports more than 50 million tons per year and for much of the decade has been the third-largest global coal exporter."