Westshore Terminals exported 6.6 million mt of coal in the third quarter, up 10% from the prior quarter, but off 2.9% from a year ago, the company said.
Westshore, located in Vancouver and the largest coal export terminal in North America, shipped 19.4 million mt through Q3, down 13.8% from the same period last year.
Exports in the quarter were 80% metallurgical coal, or 5.3 million mt, while thermal coal exports totaled 20%, or 1.3 million mt.
The company said in its earnings statement late Wednesday it expects full year volumes to total roughly 26 million mt, which would be down 9.7% from 2015.
The terminal's average loading price came to C$11.20 ($8.37) in Q3, down 0.1% from the prior quarter and down 0.9% from a year ago.
The terminal is served by Canadian Pacific and BNSF Railway. The three biggest destinations for coal shipped through the terminal in 2015 were South Korea (32.5%), Japan (21.5%) and China (13.8%).
Westshore's largest customer is Vancouver-based Teck Resources, which is committed to ship 19 million mt per contract year through March 31, 2021.
Westshore also has a throughput agreement with Gillette, Wyoming-based thermal coal producer Cloud Peak Energy, which restructured its contract in late 2015 to eliminate volume commitments from 2016 to 2018. Cloud Peak's throughput agreement runs through 2024.
Global Coal Sales Group, which markets coal produced by Montana-based Signal Peak Energy, also has a throughput agreement with Westshore.
