St. Louis, US-based steelmaking and thermal coal producer Arch Coal on January 20 announced an agreement with Canadian Crown Corporation Ridley Terminals Inc. (RTI), a coal and other bulk commodity marine terminal located near Prince Rupert, British Columbia, to facilitate coal exports to Pacific Rim markets.
The five-year agreement will give Arch Coal throughput capacity at the terminal of up to 2 million metric tons of coal for 2011 and up to 2.5 million metric tons of coal for 2012 through 2015.
RTI can load up to 12 million metric tons of coal annually, with expansion plans that could increase the facility's capacity to 24 million metric tons by 2015. Coal accounts for more than 80 percent of RTI's total volume, and Asia is the primary destination for the products shipped through the terminal. The terminal shipped 8.3 million metric tons of coal during 2010. RTI can handle panamax as well as capesize vessel loadings of up to 280,000 metric tons.