Major U.S. coal terminal expanding export capacity

HOUSTON (Reuters) - The largest U.S. coal terminal is expanding staff and operations to meet increased demand for exports, an executive with the operator said Wednesday.

Mark Bower, an NS assistant vice president over coal export marketing, confirmed an expansion to facilitate greater loading capacity but would not give specific numbers.

At the Coaltrans Americas conference in Miami last week, analysts said port capacity could be a bottleneck.

"This allows us to load two Panamax size vessels at once or one vessel much more quickly," Bower said.

Lamberts Point already was aiming for 16 million tons in 2008 with existing staff, and the new employees could add as much as 4 million tons to capacity, Thompson said.

"We will do more than that, but we do not expect big numbers," Bower said.

(Reporting by Bruce Nichols; editing by Jim Marshall)