Officials expected coke production for the September period would exceed a million tonnes – to a total 1.081 million tonnes, down 16,000 tonnes from 1.097Mt during the same period last year.

SunCoke also noted that domestic capacity utilisation for the quarter was estimated to be 101%, or 2% lower year-on-year.

The drop, it said, was primarily due to lower production at Indiana Harbor.

The company is putting together its financial results and has scheduled an October 25 earnings call to make its figures official.

SunCoke’s US facilities are located in Virginia, Indiana, Ohio and Illinois. Outside the US, it owns operations in Vitoria, Brazil and Odisha, India.

The company’s coal mining operations, which have more than 110 million tonnes of proven and probable reserves are located in Virginia and West Virginia.

Earlier last week, the company confirmed the completion of its $US86 million, 100% ownership acquisition of Traxys’ Kanawha River Terminals.

The company initially announced its plans to purchase the coal blender and handler in early August, just two months after sealing up a purchase of fellow blender and handler Lakeshore.

Due to its strategic river locations and convenient access to highways and railroads, KRT can deliver products to US ports in the Gulf Coast, East Coast and Great Lakes.

KRT’s portfolio included four coal handling facilities, the largest being the Ceredo terminal on the Ohio River in West Virginia that serves both domestic and international export markets using strong rail logistics that involve both CSX and Norfolk Southern.

Its other facilities are on the Big Sandy and Kanawha rivers in West Virginia and on Kentucky Highway 1185 near Louisa, Kentucky.

The firm also owned an idled liquids terminal on the Ohio River with a capacity of more than four million gallons of liquid storage.