Kemerovo Reg sees coal output rising to 240 mln tns in 2017

KEMERGOVO, Nov 23 (PRIME) -- Russia’s Kemerovo Region plan to raise coal output to 240 million tonnes in 2017 from 227.4 million tonnes produced in 2016, Governor Aman Tuleyev told the region’s Council of People’s Deputies.

“We have not closed a single company despite all the problems, and we’ve even managed to build new ones and to hold markets as best as we could. Today, we produce two and a half times more coal than we did in the Soviet times. This year we will produce 240 million tonnes of our black gold for the first time in our history. Our coal producers have set many world records,” he said.

Since January 1, companies have invested 63 billion rubles in the region’s coal industry, up 4.6 billion rubles on the year. Demand for coal is rising, as Asian countries are building and designing new coal-burning power plants, which will need hundreds of millions tonnes of coal in the next 10 years, he said.

“We have lived to see the rise of the coal market. Coal prices have generally satisfied us this year. Of course, five years ago we would not possibly be happy with prices of U.S. $80–90 per tonne of the most high-quality steam coal. But after the horror that the coal market endured in 2012–2015, these prices became a breath of fresh air for our coal industry,” he said.

(59.0061 rubles – U.S. $1)

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