Coal exports a boon for Port of Baltimore

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Coal remains a staple commodity export from the Port of Baltimore, and exports from the area appear to be receiving a boost under the administration of President Donald Trump.

A recent deal for thermal coal, also known as steam coal, between Pennsylvania-based firm Xcoal Energy & Resources and Ukraine-based Centrenergo PJSC is a major score for the port. Xcoal signed a deal to send 700,000 tons of thermal coal to the Ukraine, at $113 a metric ton, a first-of-its-kind agreement.

All of that coal will be shipped through Baltimore in either late August or September on its way to Europe, Ted O’Brien, a spokesman for Xcoal, said.

“The Port of Baltimore has world class facilities to handle coal, and we use it whenever we’re able,” O’Brien said.

At a recent rally in West Virginia, Trump touted the deal between XCoal and Centrenergo and celebrated the ending of the “war on beautiful, clean coal.” A bump in coal exports would be welcome news for the port that already has been setting records in recent years in the amount of cargo being moved from public terminals.

There are two private terminals that handle coal exports from the Port of Baltimore. CNX Marine Terminals, a Consol Energy subsidiary, runs a transshipping facility, and CSX operates the Chesapeake Bay Terminal. Both CSX and CNX did not return calls seeking comment on this story.

In 2016, Baltimore ranked second in the nation in terms of tonnage of coal shipped, according to figures from the state. Coal is the top commodity exported from the port. Because of the port’s proximity to coal mining regions in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and the Illinois basin, it has historically been a major destination for coal exports.

Not everyone is happy to see more coal heading out of the port. Environmental advocacy organization Chesapeake Climate Action Network, on its website, portrays the boost in coal shipments as an affront to south Baltimore communities “that already face an unjust burden of industrial pollution.”

Richard Scher, a spokesman for the Maryland Department of Transportation Port Administration, which oversees operations at the Port of Baltimore’s public terminals, said coal remains an important commodity to the port. Even though the port administration doesn’t oversee the private coal terminals he said it was good news to see coal exports increasing.

“We are encouraged that export coal is trending up,” Scher said.

Nationally, coal exports have been on an upswing so far this year. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, in the first quarter of this year coal exports increased 15.3 percent from the fourth quarter of 2016 and have jumped 57.6 percent from the first quarter of 2016. The bulk of those increases come from thermal coal, with exports up 31.6 percent from the fourth quarter last year, while metallurgical coal exports are up 4.6 percent over the same time period.

That’s a trend not expected to slow anytime soon, said Terry Headley, a spokesman for the American Coal Council. He said demand for coal, both metallurgical and thermal, is anticipated to remain high because of the quality of the metallurgical coal mined in the United States, the demand for thermal coal to fuel power plants in emerging markets and the new administration’s vociferous support for mining and exporting coal.

“The green movement can say whatever they want … but you can’t get around the fact developing countries want to industrialize,” Headley said.