The coal shipper said Monday night that its “pier without peer”, Pier 6 at Lamberts Point in Norfolk, loaded 168,977 net tons of coking coal on September 21 to the ship the Negonego.

The ship – which was loaded in 40 hours and 45 minutes – is headed to an integrated steel producer in China.

“That's a record not only for Pier 6, but also for the entire US, where Pier 6 is the top performer among more than a dozen export terminals on the East, Gulf, and West coasts,” the company said.

T Parker Host was the vessel agent, and the coal was shipped by Xcoal Energy and Resources in 1592 railroad coal cars.

“Everyone from the miners at the Buchanan mine to the employees at NS contributed to this record,” XCoal chief executive officer Ernie Thrasher said.

“They work every day to sustain our business, and they deserve the credit."

The previous loading record at Pier 6 was just three days old when it was broken on Saturday. On September 18, crews loaded 166,840 net tons of metallurgical coal onto the China Pioneer.

Pier 6 also celebrated its 50th anniversary last week.

“Pier 6 truly is a 'pier without peer’," NS group vice president for export, metallurgical, and industrial coal marketing Mark Bower said.

“America has 25% of the world's known recoverable coal reserves – more energy than all the oil in the Middle East. NS and our production and sales partners are the reliable team for getting that coal to the world's utilities and coke plants.”

The shipper has been transferring coal cars to vessels for domestic and export customers at the Lamberts Point complex since opening Pier 1 in 1884.

Piers 2-5 came online during the first half of the 1900s and Pier 6 handled its first loads in 1962 as the hemisphere’s largest, fastest and most efficient transload facility.

In 1999, Pier 6 dumped its 1 billionth ton of coal and became the only facility in the world to have reached that milestone.

Most coal moving through Pier 6 originates in southwest Virginia, southern West Virginia, eastern Kentucky and Pennsylvania.