Coal train
BNSF Railway is on pace to triple its shipments of export coal to Vancouver piers in 2010, as higher Asian demand for thermal coal pushes up prices, driving multiple companies to explore new coal terminals along the US West Coast as capacity at Canadian terminals tightens.
The growing international trade in western US coal has been encouraged by a shift from spot contracts to one- and two-year term supply deals that coal industry officials say are crucial to the development of new terminal capacity along the California, Oregon and Washington coast.
A US subsidiary of Australian miner Ambre Energy recently cleared its first regulatory hurdle to build a 5-million-st terminal along the Columbia River, while the port commissioners in Tacoma, Washington, rejected a terminal proposal that would have handled up to 20 million tons annually.