Houston — Thermal and metallurgical coal exports from Westshore Terminals near Vancouver, Canada, reached their highest level in four quarters during the second quarter of 2019, mainly due to an increase in met exports, the terminal’s earnings report said.

Westshore, the largest coal export facility in North America, shipped 7.6 million mt in Q2, up 10.1% from Q1 and down 3.8% from Q2 2018.

Coal loading revenue totaled C$97 million in the second quarter, the Vancouver-headquartered Westshore reported Tuesday, up 11.7% from the previous quarter and up 6% from the year-ago quarter.

Shipments were at their highest since Q3 2018, along with quarterly revenues. In addition, the average loading rate was C$12.80/mt in the second quarter, compared with C$12.58/mt in Q1 and C$11.55/mt in the year-ago quarter. The second quarter had the largest loading rate since S&P Global Platts data began in Q2 2011, when the average rate was C$7.15/mt.

In the second quarter about 5.3 million mt of met coal was exported from the terminal, making up 70% of total shipments, while 2.3 million mt of thermal coal was exported, or 30% of total shipments. From the year-ago quarter, met shipments were up 20.5% and thermal shipments were down 34.4%.

Through six months, Westshore exported 14.5 million mt, down 3.9% from the same period last year. Of those tons, 10.2 million mt were met in 2019 Q1 and Q2 and 4.3 million mt were thermal, compared with the year-ago period when the terminal shipped 8.5 million mt of met and 6.6 million mt of thermal.

For the year, Westshore projects total throughput volumes of 30 million mt, compared with 30.4 million mt shipped last year, at continued higher rates than last year’s average of C$11.69/mt.

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