One Coal Carrier Loaded Coal at Dominion Terminal in Week Ended January 11, One More at Pier
January 13, 2019 - Dominion Terminal Associates loaded and exported 83,888 st of coal on one vessel at its Newport News, Virginia, pier in the week ended January 11, company data showed Friday.
The terminal, which is owned by Arch Coal and Contura Energy and served by CSX, loaded the CMB Partner with 83,888 st of coal on Monday, the DTA data showed. The ship is expected to arrive in Kakogawa, Japan, on February 24, according to Platts cFlow trade-flow software.
The SBI Electra is currently anchored at the pier and is expected to load 86,806 st. As of 11 am EST, the ship had loaded 66,434 st. Once the ship is fully loaded, it will head to Gibraltar and is expected to arrive there on January 22, according to cFlow.
Five coal carriers are currently anchored near Cape Charles, outside of Hampton Roads, that are waiting to load coal at one of the three terminals. Only one of the five waiting ships are scheduled to load at DTA, which is expected to arrive on Sunday.
An additional ship, the JSW Salem, is anchored outside of Virginia Beach after running aground on Thursday morning.
The 958-foot carrier left Baltimore on Wednesday with 120,000 mt onboard before it ran aground near Cape Henry Buoy No. 4, about 2.5 miles east of Virginia Beach, according to a statement from the US Coast Guard. It was headed to the port of Kandla, India, before the grounding, according to cFlow.
"The JSW Salem was able to refloat with the rising tide and [the ship was escorted] to an anchorage about 1 mile off Virginia Beach," the statement said.
The Coast Guard said the cause of the grounding is being investigated.
Since January 1, five ships have left DTA with 377,280 st of coal onboard.
In December, 18 ships left DTA with 1.24 million st onboard, down from 21 in November that exported 1.27 million st.
Including the ship at the pier and those departed, DTA currently has 21 ships scheduled to arrive in January that will load 1.37 million st of coal, while another 21 are estimated in February to export 1.22 million st, according to the company data.
DTA is the second largest of the three coal terminals in the Hampton Roads region. In 2018, the terminal exported 15.82 million st of coal, up 23.4% year on year, according to data from the Virginia Maritime Association. The 15.82 million st was only behind Norfolk Southern-owned Lamberts Point, which exported 17.16 million st.