November 14, 2019 - Westshore Terminals reported 8.3 million mt of coal exports in the third quarter, up 9.2% from Q2 volumes and 5.1% higher than the year-ago quarter, the company reported last week.

It was the second highest amount in the last five years for the terminal, which is the located near Vancouver, British Columbia. The terminal handled 8.5 million mt in Q3 2017, according to its quarterly earnings reports.

The company said it shipped roughly 4.7 million mt of metallurgical coal and 3.6 million mt of thermal coal at an average loading rate of C$12.34/mt, down 3.6% from Q2, but up 3.7% from the year-ago quarter. The 3.6 million mt of thermal coal exported was the highest in over 10 years.

The terminal, which is served by Canadian Pacific and BNSF Railway, exported 5.3 million mt of metallurgical coal and 2.3 million mt of thermal in Q2 and 4.7 million mt of met coal and 3.2 million mt of thermal in the year-ago quarter.

Coal loading revenues were at a 10-year high C$102.9 million in Q3, up 6.1% from the prior quarter and 9.1% higher than a year ago.

Through nine months, Westshore exported 22.8 million mt, down from 23 million mt in the same period last year. Of those tons, 14.9 million mt were met and 7.9 million mt were thermal, compared with 13.2 million mt of met and 9.8 million mt of thermal coal in the year-ago period.

Year-to-date coal loading revenues are at C$286.8 million, up 7.1% from a year earlier.

For the year, Westshore projects total throughput volumes of 30.5 million mt, which would be up from 30.4 million mt shipped last year and the most since 30.6 million mt in 2014.