Lucky the US doesn’t need a steel industry anymore. Oh, wait, what?
That met coal was being shipped all over world, China was paying up huge for it, Hampton Roads in VA was a super busy port, because most (no, all) US-produced met coal is from the East. Western coal is lignite = crud. I think met coal was going for 8 times thermal coal at one point. This is what commodities do....they soar, they crash. Still, met coal is almost indispensable for steelmaking.