Figure 3. Prices of Metallurgical Coal and Coke by Disposition This is a line graph with four lines, showing quarterly average prices for U.S. coke exports (prices include delivery to export docks), coke imports to the U.S. delivered to iron and steel plants, U.S. met coal delivered to coke plants, and met coal delivered to U.S. export docks. The graph covers the period from 1Q95 through the 2Q01. Most noticeable are the plots for U.S. coke exports and imports. Average U.S. coke export prices are very erratic relative to other prices: they trend upward during most of the period, but vary by as much as ± $50 from one quarter to the next. In contrast, prices of U.S. imports of coke show less variance, starting out higher than the export prices during 1995 and 1996, then declining and, after 1Q98, staying lower than coke export prices. Until 2Q99, prices for U.S. met coal are relatively stable at $47-$48 per ton delivered to coke plants and $44-$46 per ton delivered to export docks. After 2Q99 prices for export met coal decline by an additional $4-$7 per ton, while prices for met coal sold domestically remain unchanged. Back