Coal Facts
Steelmaking, also referred to as metallurgical, or coking coal, is a necessary ingredient to make steel. It takes 1,700 pounds (770 kg) of coal to make one ton of steel, which is the amount needed for a typical mid-sized car.
Steel is a fundamental material needed in our daily life and is used for communications, transportation, health and energy. The tractors that plow our fields, the wind turbines that generate energy and the fridges that keep our food fresh all require steel.
Steelmaking coal is a naturally occurring sedimentary rock found within the Earth’s crust. This qualities of this type of coal are different from thermal coal, which is used for electricity generation.
The United States exports more coal to other countries than it imports. According the US Energy Information Agency, in 2019, the United States produced 706 million short tons of coal. Of the coal the US produced, we exported almost 94 million short tons to at least 50 countries, of which 51 percent (40.8 million tons) was metallurgical coal.
Globally, Australia dominates the supply of seaborne metallurgical coal trade, with the United States ranking second ahead of Canada.
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