Coal exports out of Hampton Roads, Virginia, rose to the highest in over 11 years in May as shippers redirected volumes from Baltimore, Maryland.

Terminals in Hampton Roads handled an estimated 4.62mn short tons (4.19mn metric tonnes) last month, up by 56pc from May 2023, the Virginia Maritime Association said on Tuesday. The last time the port loaded more coal during a month was in March 2013 when 4.88mn st were exported.

The climb in exports reflects the temporary closure of the Port of Baltimore after a cargo ship crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge and caused the structure to collapse. Within a week of the closure, shippers using eastern railroads Norfolk Southern and CSX began diverting cargoes to terminals in Virginia. Those shipments continued into May.

The association did not indicate how much coal handled in Hampton Roads in May had been rerouted from Baltimore.

Diversions to Hampton Roads may have started to slow down by the end of the month when coal exports resumed out of Baltimore on 20 May after a temporary limited access channel was cleared. However, the Baltimore shipments were still mostly limited to smaller vessels at that time.

The disruptions in Baltimore may have a less significant impact on Hampton Roads coal exports starting this month because the port fully reopened on 10 June after it was restored to its full operating dimensions.

The association said last month that, prior to the bridge collapse, Hampton Roads had already started handling more coal compared to 2023. Those increased shipments were driven by higher seaborne demand for metallurgical coal. Argus‘ high-volatile type A coking coal assessment averaged $210.95/t fob Hampton Roads in May, slightly down from $212.13/t a year prior.

Thermal coal demand continued to decline last month, with the average for prompt two-month shipments of 6,000 kcal/kg coal out of Hampton Roads sliding to $101.32/t fob from $112.68/t in May 2023.

Two out of the three Hampton Roads terminals handled more coal in May than they had in the same month last year.

NS’ Lamberts Point terminal loaded an estimated 1.96mn st of coal last month, more than double the 806,793st exported a year earlier. Shipments at the terminal last month reached the highest monthly level since December 2012.

In addition, exports from Kinder Morgan’s Pier IX rose to the highest monthly volume since March 2013 at 1.31mn st compared with 794,549st in May 2023.

Meanwhile, shipments out of Dominion Terminal Associates (DTA), which is co-owned by coal producers Alpha Metallurgical Resources and Arch Resources, marginally fell by 5,258st to 1.31mn st in May. This decline likely reflected a planned week-long outage during the month.

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