US thermal coal exports rose from year-earlier levels for a second month in April, led by greater shipments to India, Morocco, Japan and Canada.

Roughly 3.97mn short tons (3.6mn metric tonnes) of US steam coal departed US ports during the month, preliminary figures from the US Commerce Department show. Shipments were 20pc higher than revised figures for April 2024.

The year-on-year increase in thermal coal volumes was led for the second month in a row by higher shipments to India following a period in earl 2025 when high-sulfur coal was priced at a competitive advantage to petroleum coke, The US shipped 1.81mn st of steam coal to India this past April, compared with 956,048st a year prior. Most of the coal that went to India moved out of the Baltimore, Maryland, and New Orleans, Louisiana, Census Districts.

US thermal coal exports to all of Asia rose to 2.38mn st from 1.62mn st. In addition to the rise in shipments to India, US steam coal volumes headed to Japan rose to 198,770st from 70,861st and exports to Indonesia and Pakistan increased to 83,022st and 64,634st, respectively, from essentially zero a year earlier.

US steam coal shipments to South Korea – another major destination – fell by 34pc on the year prior, to 226,960st.

Outside of Asia, US thermal coal exports to Morocco, Canada, the Dominican Republic and Brazil also rose. Shipments to Morocco were at a three-month high of 630,468st, while those to Canada were the most so far this year, totaling an estimated 172,200st.

Europe was the only continent to which the US did not ship more thermal coal in April when compared with a year earlier. Exports to the continent plunged to 1,053st – the lowest in monthly Commerce Department data going back to January 2002 – from 316,749st a year earlier. European buyers in general had limited interest in making spot coal purchases in March and early April – when most US thermal coal sales to Europe would have been struck – as they prepared for moderate spring generation. European buyers also appeared to favor thermal coal from other countries instead of US coal, shipping data show.

Still, overall US coal exports rose to 7.58mn st in April from 6.76mn st a year earlier. Metallurgical coal shipments increased by 4.3pc on the year prior to 3.62mn st.

The Commerce Department today also revised full-year 2024 US coal exports. It lifted the figure for overall coal exports to 108.3mn st from a preliminary total of 107.6mn st. The agency boosted the 2024 US thermal coal export figure to 51.7mn st from a previous 50.7mn st. That widened the gain last year had on 2023 to 2.6mn st.

The final tallies of 2024 steam coal exports to Asia, Africa and other parts of the Americas were all higher than previously reported, offsetting a 0.5pc decrease in the revised volumes to Europe.

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