US coal giants have been hit hard, unable to compete with natural gas at home, but overseas this market is getting hotter by the minute.

Illinois is a key coal state benefitting from this development, with the latest reports showing that it exported a record 13 million tons of coal last year. This is a major increase over the previous years, with only 5.5 million tons of exports in 2011 and 2.5 million tons in 2010.

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