Energy Information Administration
Table Posted: August 19, 2008
Next Update: December 2008 
Steam Coal Import Costs
(U.S. Dollars per Metric Ton 1 - Average Unit Value, CIF 2)
Country 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007
Belgium 40.74 39.88 46.96 39.34 39.76 66.29 70.83 70.95 NA
Denmark 30.29 31.67 40.78 31.65 50.27 56.29 61.84 59.15 NA
Finland 31.50 32.08 40.83 37.08 39.99 58.45 62.80 67.65 NA
France 38.59 37.21 45.36 42.59 42.63 64.08 75.23 72.92 NA
Germany 32.59 33.45 41.46 36.80 39.00 61.22 72.48 70.12 NA
Ireland 3 42.93 42.85 45.25 47.88 50.08 80.90 74.91 101.78 NA
Italy 33.49 37.92 44.83 41.25 42.45 63.54 73.20 69.16 NA
Japan 35.87 34.59 37.95 36.95 34.93 51.48 62.73 63.33 NA
Netherlands 30.41 29.54 40.09 35.81 37.27 55.09 68.86 68.57 NA
Spain 29.64 32.03 37.30 34.80 36.73 55.89 62.94 60.66 NA
United Kingdom 40.43 39.73 45.66 40.48 44.03 65.02 70.24 69.91 NA
United States 33.64 31.11 35.14 37.61 33.76 40.10 47.39 50.55 NA
1 To convert U.S. dollars per metric ton to U.S. dollars per short ton divide by 1.1023
2 CIF (cargo, insurance and freight) refers to cargos for which the seller pays for the transportation and insurance up to 
the port of destination. It is similar to the  terms of an f.o.b. (free on board) sale, except that the seller, as a service for which 
he is compensated, arranges for transportation and insurance.
3 On occasion shipments of extremely small quantities of coal with high values and transportation costs result in high 
import costs.
NA=Not available.
Source: Energy Prices & Taxes - Quarterly Statistics, First Quarter 2008, Part I, Table 13,  Paris: International 
Energy Agency, 2008.  The Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) maintains annual and quarterly time
series of this price data that begin with the year 1980 and that also include the most recent quarterly prices. 
Information on purchasing this data online from the IEA is available at:  http://data.iea.org/ieastore/default.asp