Coal exports out of Hampton Roads, Virginia, climbed by 20.2pc in October, rebounding from the port’s first drop in nearly two years.

The port’s terminals handled 3.71mn short tons (3.37mn metric tonnes) of coal last month, up from 3.08mn st a year earlier, according to the Virginia Maritime Association. That brought year-to-date shipments up to 36.4mn st from 29.1mn st during the first 10 months of 2017.

The increase came a month after exports fell for the first time since October 2016, possibly because of closures during Hurricane Florence. Forty-four coal vessels sailed from the port in October, up from 37 in the same month of 2017 and 42 vessels in September.

Seaborne prices climbed through most of the month, continuing to draw US thermal and metallurgical coal production into international markets. Prompt 90-day shipments of US high volatile type B coal averaged $169.00/t fob Hampton Roads from mid-September through mid-October, up from $157.70/t the previous four weeks. And prompt two-month deliveries of 6,000 kcal/kg thermal coal to Europe climbed to an average of $100.17/t cif Amsterdam-Rotterdam-Antwerp from $99.74/t.

Two of the three Hampton Roads terminals handled more coal last month than they had in October 2017. Loadings at Kinder Morgan’s Pier IX climbed to 1.02mn st from 513,477st a year earlier.

Exports at Dominion Terminal Associates, which is jointly owned by Contura Energy and Arch Coal, increased to 1.46mn st from 1.25mn st in October 2017.

Loadings at Norfolk Southern’s Lamberts Point fell to 1.23mn st from 1.32mn st a year earlier.

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