Europe is buying almost 50% more U.S. coal as winter approaches and the Russian invasion of Ukraine drags on, increasing the percentage of U.S. coal shipped to Europe to the highest level since 2016.
The overall value of U.S. coal exports to Europe has risen significantly more, up 184.21%, according to the latest Census Bureau data. That’s the effect of increasing volume at the same time prices are increasing rapidly.
While the price increase is affecting all regions of the world fairly equally, Europe is paying its additional cost as it faces a shortage of heating fuel. Its traditional source — Russian natural gas — is very much in doubt as Russia retaliates for European and U.S. sanctions over Ukraine.
Increasing even more sharply by volume are U.S. shipments of liquid natural gas to Europe, the highly concentrated form of natural gas, as I have written previously.
While LNG and natural gas are seen as “clean,” or as least cleaner, energy sources, coal is largely seen as an energy source with greater environmental impact and, consequently, tied to global warming discussions.
European nations have been among those turning against coal in recent years, which served to increase its dependency on Russian natural gas.
Consequently, Europe is now scrambling to build facilities to convert this LNG back into natural gas, which its nations can more readily accommodate.
And, now, it means buying more coal.
From 2007 to 2015, Europe had purchased more than half of all U.S. coal exports, by value. By 2021, that had plummeted to 30.39%. Through October of this year, relying on the most current data, those exports to Europe have surged to 43.47%.
Despite the increase in U.S. coal exports to Europe, overall exports to the world are up less than 1% by weight, according to the latest Census Bureau data, which is through October.
That because U.S. exports to Asia, the second-largest market by continent, are down 23.66% by volume (though still up 49.40% by value).
By value, U.S. coal exports to the world have increased 98.05% this year. That is nearly five times the increase in value of all U.S. exports, which are up a nevertheless robust 19.81.
The increase in value of U.S. exports of coal to the world is steeper than that for U.S. exports of natural gas to the world, including Europe. Increased LNG shipments to Europe, also meant to ease the suffering brought on by winter weather, are up 11.09% by volume and 52.01% by value.
While a great deal of the United States’ LNG originates in Texas and is shipped out through Gulf seaports, most of its coal comes from West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky. The Port of Virginia is the largest gateway for those outbound shipments, accounting for 41.04% of the total this year.
