Coal output in Russia’s Kuzbass rallies 4% m-o-m in August

• Kuzbass coal output rose 4% m-o-m to 15.3 mnt in August, recovering from July’s decline
• Jan-Aug coal exports increased 8.1% y-o-y to 73.1 mnt, indicating firm export activity.

After the brief decline the month before, production of of coal in Russia’s Kuzbass region in southwestern Siberia climbed back to 15.3 million tonnes during August,  on-par with June’s output and up 4% from July. Mysteel Global calculated based on the latest industry data from the Ministry of Coal Industry of Kuzbass. On a yearly basis, the August volume was higher by 2%.

The Kuzbass ministry provided no specific data on coal output last month but during a meeting with Russian Energy Minister Sergei Tsivilev earlier in September, Kuzbass Governor Ilya Seredyuk had put the region’s output at 122.6 million tonnes over January-August. Given that January-July output totaled 107.4 million tonnes, as reported, that puts August-only production at about 15.2 million, Mysteel Global notes.

During the meeting, Ilya Seredyuk also noted that during January-August, Kuzbass had shipped 36.75 million tonnes of coal to Russia’s eastern ports for export, slightly above the 36.72 million tonnes planned for the period. According to agreements the Kuzbass government had reached with Russian Railways, the region should transport 55 million tonnes of coal to Russia’s export ports in the Far East this year, as reported.

Over the first eight months, Kuzbass’ total coal shipments for export reached 73.1 million tonnes, up 8.1% from the previous year. In August alone, the volume for export was 8.9 million tonnes, down 3.3% on month but up 6.1% on year, the ministry stated.

Note: The article is published as part of a content sharing agreement between Mysteel Global and BigMint.