KIEV: Ukraine’s overall coal extraction fell 3.6% year-on-year to 3.52 million mt in September from 3.65 million mt in September 2015, but up from 3.5 million mt in August, an energy and coal industry ministry official said.
In September, output of thermal coal rose 0.3% year-on-year to 2.93 million mt, while production of coking coal dropped 20% to 589,300 mt, the official said, citing preliminary data. In January through September, Ukraine produced 29.55 million mt of coal, down 0.5% from 29.69 million mt in the same period a year ago.
Thermal coal production fell 2.2% to 23.09 million mt in the first nine months from 23.62 million mt a year ago, but coking coal output rose 6.4% to 6.46 million mt from 6.07 million mt.
Ukraine’s coal production has been disrupted since June 2014 due to an armed conflict in Donetsk and Luhansk, the country’s two key coal producing regions. Parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions are currently under the control of pro-Russian separatists. But coal output has been slightly recovering after an agreement was reached in Minsk last year between Ukraine and Russia over a ceasefire in the conflict zone.
Coal output in the government-controlled parts of the Donetsk region increased 9.9% year-on-year to 11.54 million mt in January-September from 10.5 million mt a year ago. Production of coal in the government-controlled parts of the Luhansk region rose 3.3% to 3.24 million mt. At the same time, coal output in the Dnipropetrovsk region fell 5.9% to 13.44 million mt from 14.28 million mt, output in the Lviv region dropped 23% to 1.18 million mt from 1.53 million mt and output in the Volyn region declined 22.1% to 145,600 mt from 186,900 mt.
The state-owned coal mines extracted 4.4 million mt of coal in January-September, down from 5.02 million mt in the same period of 2015. In 2015, Ukraine’s coal output fell to 39.76 million mt from 65 million mt in 2014 and 83.7 million mt in 2013, according to the ministry.
