Houston — Dominion Terminal Associates loaded and exported a nine-month low 45,011 st of coal on one coal carrier at its Newport News, Virginia, pier in the week ended Friday, down from a four-month high five ships that exported 363,994 st a week earlier, company data showed Friday.

It was the lowest departures in a week since one coal carrier also departed with 80,370 st onboard in the week ended December 7, 2018.

The terminal, which is owned by Contura Energy (65%) and Arch Coal (35%) and served by CSX, loaded the Nord Emperor with 45,011 st of coal on Thursday, the DTA data showed. The ship is expected to reach the Port of San Nicolas, Argentina, on September 2, according to Platts cFlow tradeflow software.

So far this month, six ships have departed DTA with 409,006 st onboard.

In July, 15 ships departed DTA with a 29-month low 787,720 st, down from 18 that exported 983,614 st in June and 1.29 million st on 25 ships in the year-ago month. It was the lowest level since 664,300 st was shipped out in February 2017.

Since January 1, 118 ships have left DTA with 7.28 million st of coal. In the first eight months of 2018, 10.7 million st of coal was exported.

Including those departed, DTA currently has 21 ships scheduled to arrive in August that will load 1.25 million st of coal, while 27 are estimated in September to export 1.45 million st, according to the company data. Another 24 ships are currently scheduled to load 1.24 million st.

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.

-- Tyler Godwin, tyler.godwin@spglobal.com

-- Edited by Bill Montgomery, newsdesk@spglobal.com