US exported 97 mmst of coal in 2017, a 61% increase from 2016



Source: EIA

US coal exports came at 97 million short tons (mmst) in 2017, a 61% increase from the previous year, but they are expected to decrease in both 2018 and 2019, as per the recent report by the US Energy Information Agency (EIA).

It is forecasted that the exports of metallurgical coal, which is used in the steelmaking process, will remain at 55 mmst in 2018 and decline to 54 mmst in 2019. Steam coal exports, which were an estimated 42 mmst in 2017, are expected to decline to 26 mmst and 23 mmst in 2018 and 2019, respectively.

Moreover, the US’ year-to-date (as of March 3, 2017) coal production totalled at 130.9 mmst, 6.3% lower than the comparable year-to-date coal production in 2017.

Looking at the weekly production data, the world’s second largest coal producer produced an estimated 15.1 mmst of coal for the week ending March 3, 2018, EIA said in its latest report.

According to EIA’s latest report, this production estimate is 0.4% lower than last week’s estimate and 2.4% lower than the production estimate in the comparable week in 2017.

East of the Mississippi River produced totaled an estimated 6.1 mmst (down 1.61 percent week over week) and west of the Mississippi River produced totaled an estimated 9 mmst (no change week over week) according to weekly figures released by EIA, on March 8, 2018.

EIA forecasts coal production to decline by almost 5% to 736 million short tons (MMst) in 2018 and then increase by 1% to 745 MMst in 2019. Lower expected global demand for U.S. coal exports (down 17% in 2018 and another 5% in 2019) and lower forecasts of coal use in the electric power sector (down 5% in 2018) contribute to the forecast of lower coal production.

Source: EIA