Ukraine’s coal production in November was down 44% year on year to 4.12 million mt in November, which was 4.2% higher than October, an energy and coal industry ministry official said Wednesday, citing preliminary figures.
Production of thermal coal, used in power generation, fell 37% year on year to 3.4 million mt in November, while output of coking coal, used in steel making, fell 65% to 716,000 mt.
The coal industry has been hit by the conflict between government forces and pro-Russian separatists in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions bordering Russia, Ukraine’s two key coal-producing regions.
Output in Donetsk in November fell 58% to 1.39 million mt, with production in Luhansk region also 58% lower, at 931,000 mt.
Ukraine’s coal production in the first 11 months of the year fell 19% to 61.5 million mt, the official said. Thermal coal production fell 16% to 46.03 million mt and coking coal output dropped 29% to 15.47 million mt.
From January-November, coal output in Donetsk fell 27% to 24.95 million mt, while production in Luhansk was down 27% to 17.38 million mt.
At the same time, coal output in Dnipropetrovsk rose 4.4% to 17.24 million mt and production in Lviv increased 21.1% to 1.65 million mt.
Ukraine extracted 83.7 million mt of coal in 2013, down 2.6% on 2012. (https://www.platts.com/latest-news/coal/kiev/ukraine-november-coal-output-down-44-year-on-26957443)