DTA coal terminal loads three vessels in week ended Sep 28, two docked at pier

Dominion Terminal Associates, based in Newport News, Virginia, loaded and exported 249,589 st of coal on three vessels in the week ended Friday, while two more are currently docked at the pier, according to company data.

The terminal, which is owned by Arch Coal and Contura Energy and served by CSX, loaded the BW Canola vessel with 72,989 st of coal on Monday. The ship is expected to arrive in Lulea, Sweden, on October 14, according to cFlow, Platts trade-flow software.

On Tuesday, the Osaka Star departed with 89,545 st of coal and is expected to arrive in Richards Bay on October 22, according to cFlow and the company data. The Cassiopeia Ocean vessel left the terminal on Wednesday with 87,055 st onboard and is expected to arrive in Rotterdam on October 11, according to the data.

Two more vessels -- the HL Baltimore and the Santorini -- are currently anchored at the pier and are expected to load 67,020 st and 86,090 st, respectively. As of 2:15 EDT, the Santorini had loaded 39,712 st.

There are three vessels that are estimated to arrive at DTA Friday. Those ships are expected to load a combined 190,389 st, while two additional vessels are expected to pick up 90,940 st and 91,491 st, respectively, on Saturday and Sunday.

This week, 2,256 rail cars, or roughly 20.5 trains, dumped 261,285 st, including 220 cars with 25,700 st on Friday. Tuesday was the busiest day for the terminal, which saw 579 rail cars dump 67,593 st of coal, followed by 561 rail cars that unloaded 64,015 st on Monday.

So far in September, 9,200 coal cars have unloaded 1.06 million st of coal, compared with 13,608 cars that dumped 1.57 million st in August.

Through the first 28 days of the month, 15 vessels carrying 997,566 st have departed DTA, compared with 25 vessels with 1.6 million st in August. The 1.6 million st shipped out of the terminal last month was the most since 1.71 million st was exported in March 2014.

Since January 1, 173 vessels have left DTA with nearly 11.7 million st of coal onboard.

DTA currently has 28 vessels scheduled to arrive in October that will load nearly 1.69 million st of coal, while another 28 are estimated in November to export 1.55 million st, according to the company data.

DTA is the second largest of the three coal terminals in the Hampton Roads region. In 2017, the terminal exported 12.82 million st of coal, up 65.8% year on year, according to data from the Virginia Maritime Association. The 12.82 million st was only behind Norfolk Southern-owned Lamberts Point, which exported 14.77 million st.

source: S&P Global Platts