Six Coal Carriers Depart From Baltimore in Week Ended November 3
By Tyler Godwin
November 5, 2019 - Six laden coal carriers departed from Baltimore in the week ended November 3, up from three a week earlier, according to cFlow, Platts trade flow software.
But the total dead-weight tonnage of the departures was 377,489 dwt, down from 393,383 dwt in the prior week, the data showed.
Two of the departures stayed in the US, with one arriving in Port Canaveral, Florida, November 2, and one expecting to arrive in Norfolk, Virginia, November 5.
One coal carrier is scheduled to arrive in Puerto Bolivar, Colombia, November 8, while another is estimated to reach Tubarao, Brazil, November 16.
Two more coal carriers are headed to Europe, with one expected to arrive in Aviles, Spain, November 9, and the other to Ijmuiden, Netherlands, on November 17.
Expected Arrivals Climb on Week
Nine coal ships are expected to arrive in Baltimore by November 10, up from three the prior week, according to the data.
Six of the nine coal carriers are unladen, while the remaining three are laden. In the previous week, all three were unladen.
S&P Global Platts assessed FOB Baltimore 6,900 kcal/kg NAR 3% sulfur coal, for 15- to 60-day loading, at $54.50/mt Monday, unchanged from Friday.
In 2018, Baltimore was the second-largest coal exporting port in the US, shipping out 19.53 million mt of coal, behind Norfolk, Virginia's 37.34 million mt, according to US Census Bureau data.
Nearly 52%, or 10.11 million mt, of the coal shipped out of Baltimore in 2018 was bituminous coal, while the remaining 48% was metallurgical coal. It was the first time in more than eight years that more thermal coal was exported out of Baltimore than metallurgical coal.
From January through August, 7.26 million mt of bituminous coal left Baltimore, up from 6.5 million mt in the same period a year ago and the highest volume in more than eight years.
The 7.26 million mt was the most bituminous coal exported from any US port, beating out New Orleans, which exported 6.77 million mt.