Coal exports out of Hampton Roads, Virginia, rose for a third consecutive month in October as operations at one of the port’s terminals recovered.

Terminals in Hampton Roads loaded 2.89mn short tons (2.61mn metric tonnes) of coal last month, up by 11.6pc from a year earlier, the Virginia Maritime Association estimates. Year-to-date volumes climbed to just under 29mn st from 27.1mn st a year earlier.

Only one of the three coal terminals at Hampton Roads had a year-on-year increase in October. Export loadings at Dominion Terminal Associates (DTA), which is co-owned by Alpha Metallurgical Resources and Arch Resources, jumped by 39pc from October 2022 to a five-year high of 1.44mn st.

The increase at DTA may have partly reflected some delayed loadings from the third quarter. Alpha said recently that mechanical and weather-related issues hindered third-quarter terminal operations and caused vessel delays. DTA’s loadings in October were about 400,000st higher than in September, when they had reached an eight-month low of 1.03mn st.

Coal loadings at other terminals in Hampton Roads declined in October, both from a year earlier and from September.

Loadings at Norfolk Southern’s Lamberts Point terminal fell to a five-month low of 956,896st last month from 960,189st in October 2022. Kinder Morgan’s Pier IX terminal handled 498,344st of coal last month, down from 599,272st a year earlier and the least since June 2022.

Atlantic basin metallurgical and thermal coal prices for spot shipments stabilized in September and October, but remained below where they had been in early 2023. In addition, some coking coal and low-sulfur steam coal supply was limited last month, market participants have said.

Last month’s decrease in volumes brought Pier IX’s year-to-date coal export loadings down to 6.59mn st from 6.61mn st a year earlier. January-October loadings at DTA and Lamberts Point rose to 11.6mn st and 10.8mn st, respectively, from 10.5mn st and 9.97mn st in the same period of 2022.

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