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Earlier this year, during the doldrums of the US coal market, CNX Coal Resources was selling tons into the export market out of necessity to generate cash flow and keep the longwalls running. Now, increasing its seaborne business is a moneymaking focus for the company.

During a Q3 earnings call Monday evening, CNXC officials said coal demand is up and so are sales, with improved pricing in the domestic market and in both the export thermal and metallurgical markets helping the bottom line.

Coal sales in the third quarter totaled 1.5 million st, up from 1.2 million in the previous quarter, and average realized pricing improved to $44.30/st compared to $40.61/st in Q2. Ten percent of Q3 sales, about 150,000 st, went into the drastically improved high-vol met export market, and CEO Jimmy Brock said the company will "continue to pursue additional opportunities to capture pricing and volume upside" there.

CNXC reported during Q3 it added about 575,000 st in 2017 sales, including 340,000 st in the crossover met market. The uptick caused CNXC to improve its 2016 sales guidance to 5.9-6.1 million st, up 31% on the low end and 20% on the high end of the range.

Higher-quality thermal coal from the company's Bailey mine is often blended with other met coal in a high-vol B mix. Jim McCaffrey, senior vice president of sales, said such a mixture is "imperative for steel makers and coke makers to use it in their blend to help bring down their costs," especially with the recent spike in seaborne met coal.

The global coking coal benchmark for low-vol met coal more than doubled from Q2 to Q3, growing to $200/mt. In 2011 when the benchmark peaked at $300/mt, McCaffrey hinted Bailey coal was sold into that market in the $70s/st rage. CNXC is negotiating with several customers, he added, noting that today's pricing is not "exactly linear, it's a little bit improved linear" when comparing the benchmarks.

Brock said pricing for Bailey has "benefited from the global rally in the coke and coal prices."

Officials also expressed a desire to take advantage of improved thermal export pricing, especially in the near term. McCaffrey said forward pricing is "highly backwardated and we do want to take advantage of the front end of the curve as much as we can."