US thermal coal exports rose from year-earlier levels for a fifth consecutive month in July, led by greater shipments to some parts of Asia, northern Africa and Europe.

An estimated 3.96mn short tons (3.59mn metric tonnes) of US steam coal departed US ports during the month, up from 3.05mn st in July 2025, preliminary figures released by the US Commerce Department on Thursday show.

A relatively wide range of countries were destined to get more US thermal coal in July than they had a year earlier. But the gains were led by increased shipments to India, Morocco, South Korea, the Netherlands and Japan.

Data also suggest shippers were moving more lower-sulfur coal or coal from Northern Appalachia than they were Illinois basin or Central Appalachian coal. Exports out of Census districts in Maryland, Washington state, Texas and Alabama were higher in July than they had been a year earlier, while shipments out of Louisiana and southern Virginia were lower.

Some of the shifts in exports out of certain districts may reflect buyer interest. But Central Appalachian coal supply has been tight in recent months, which may have limited exports out of Norfolk, Virginia, as well as shipments out of the New Orleans, Louisiana, Census district that historically have blended Central Appalachian coal with higher-sulfur coal from the Illinois basin. In addition, shipments out of the Norfolk Census district were restricted during the month by a partial outage at Dominion Terminal Associates. Core Natural Resources and Alpha Metallurgical Resources, which are co-owners of the terminal, said they were rerouting some shipments to other US east coast terminals.

In July, US thermal coal exports out of the Baltimore, Maryland, Census district climbed to 1.81mn st from 1.04mn st a year earlier. An estimated 838,969st of coal from Baltimore was headed to India, up from 659,583st in July 2025.

Exporters also moved coal from Baltimore to Canada, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Germany, Indonesia, Morocco, the Netherlands, Togo, Argentina and Brazil, although in the case of Canada and the Dominican Republic less coal was shipped in July 2026 than in July 2025.

Total US thermal coal exports to Canada and the Dominican Republic also fell in July from a year earlier, but those decreases were more than offset by gains in exports to other countries.

Overall US exports to India — the largest international destination for US steam coal — jumped to 860,383st from 661,160st. Most of the coal was likely headed to cement makers in India, as thermal coal prices were more favorable to petroleum coke at times earlier this year.

US thermal coal exports to Morocco climbed to 858,106st in July from 513,119st a year earlier. An estimated 323,413st of the coal that went to Morocco this past July was shipped from Baltimore, and 364,259st was from the New Orleans district, while the rest came out of Norfolk, the Commerce Department data show.

South Korea was the third-largest destination for US thermal coal in July, with 587,711st listed as heading toward there during the month compared with 358,528st a year earlier. All of the US steam coal shipped to South Korea was sub-bituminous coal, likely from Powder River basin mines and going through the Seattle, Washington, Census district to be exported out of British Columbia coal terminals. The US also shipped trace amounts of sub-bituminous coal to the Netherlands and Mexico, but most of the rest of the thermal coal exported from the US in July was bituminous coal.

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