According to the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) weekly production report, year-to-date U.S. metallurgical exports through March 2014 were down 7.2% as compared to the same period last year (16.9mt v. 18.2mt) and steam coal exports were off by 19% (10.8mt v. 13.4mt). Coal imports were up by 71.4% for the same year-to-date period (2.5mt v. 1.4mt). West Virginia’s 2014 year-to-date production, through 5/17, was down 0.8% statewide when compared to the same period in 2013 (44.9mt v. 45.3mt), with northern WV production down 0.7% (16.4mt v. 16.6mt) and southern WV was off 0.9% (28.5mt v. 28.7mt). U.S. year-to-date production through 5/17 was down 0.4% (370mt v. 371.3mt). There were 114,881 railroad cars loaded last week in the United States.