Baltimore Bridge Collapses, Global Coal Exports Could Be in Chaos

JAKARTA – Collapse of a major bridge in Baltimore it would likely shut down coal exports at the port for six weeks and block transport of up to 2.5 million tons of coal, said Ernie Thrasher, chief executive of Xcoal Energy & Resources LLC. The US exported about 74 million tons of coal last year, with Baltimore as the second largest terminal for this commodity. The closure of major coal hubs threatens to disrupt global energy supply chains that are finally starting to iron out the kinks left by the pandemic-induced slowdown.

“You will see some diversions to other ports, but other ports are quite busy,” said Thrasher at Xcoal, a coal trading company in Pennsylvania that works with several suppliers quoted by Business Stadard, Wednesday (27/3/2024). “There’s a limit to how much you can divert.”

Baltimore ships less than 2% of the coal transported by sea globally, so the bridge’s collapse would have little impact on global prices, Thrasher said. He added that the coal moving out of Baltimore includes a lot of thermal coal originating from India, which is used for power generation.

“This will cause some disruption or chaos from a supply chain standpoint,” Thrasher said. “But the big question is the impact on India is greater than the global impact.”

View Photos: View of the Dali cargo ship crashing into the Baltimore Bridge in the United States

India’s annual coal demand stands at more than 1 billion tonnes and the country imported about 238 million tonnes of the fuel in the last fiscal year, of which about 6 percent was shipped from the United States. Baltimore accounts for about 12 million tons of those imports, according to a research note from analytics firm Energy Aspects.

The Energy Aspects note also estimates marine traffic in Baltimore will be disrupted for at most two or three weeks. Some coal shipments may be temporarily diverted to other ports including Norfolk, Virginia, the note added.

(nng)