Mechel’s Mines Cuts Coal Output 47% in Russia’s Kuzbass Region
Mechel coal and steel group Yuzhny
Kuzbass or Southern Kuzbass Coal Co. cut
coal production 46.5% year-on-year in
January to July to 5 million metric tons,
Interfax reported. A sharp drop in coking
coal production, by 2.6 million mt to 2.2
million mt was mainly responsible for the
overall reduction in output. Demand for
coking coal started to plummet in the
fourth quarter of last year. As a result,
Southern Kuzbass produced just less than
15 million mt of coal last year as a whole
including 7.8 million mt of steam coal and
7 million mt of coking coal. It produced
18.6 million mt in 2007 including 8.7
million mt of coking coal. Southern
Kuzbass is one of Russia’s largest coal producers.
It operates four open-pits, three
deep mines and four prep plants in the
Kuznetsk basin in the Kemerovo region.
As featured in Womp 2009 Vol 09 - www.womp-int.com