Russia's Kuzbass to continue cutting coal output in 2024 if rail shipments does not stabilize - official
KEMEROVO. Aug 1 (Interfax) - Russia's Kemerovo region, home to the coal-rich Kuznetsk coal basin or Kuzbass, will reduce coal production in 2024, the region's coal industry minister, Oleg Tokarev, told Interfax.
"We'll definitely not match last year's level, we're already down," he said. The region could produce about 210 million-212 million tonnes of coal this year "if there are no railway improvements," he said.
The region mined 102.8 million tonnes of coal in January-June 2024, down 5.5% year-on-year.
"As of today, all our stations are full of coal, we can't shift it. Yesterday, I briefed the Energy Ministry that the situation was very difficult. They are setting a special team up to look into it and we hope that will resolve the issue," Tokarev said.
He said there were 125 "officially abandoned trains - cleared for movement, but not actually moving." One obstacle to further reducing the number of abandoned trains - the figure previously exceeded 200 - is "a shortage of locomotive crews and locomotives," he said.
The Kuzbass reduced coal output 4% to 214.2 million tonnes in 2023. Output fell from 243.1 million tonnes in 2021 to 223.6 million tonnes in 2022.
Coal exports have also been falling since 2021. Tokarev said in a presentation at a conference on the development of coal deposits in in Kemerovo on Thursday that the region exported 139.3 million tonnes of coal in 2021, falling to 122.4 million tonnes in 2022 and 113.8 million tonnes in 2023. It reduced coal exports 7% year-on-year in H1 2024 to 53.3 million tonnes.
Coal shipments fell 8% in H1 to 89.7 million tonnes, with 27.6 million tonnes shipped eastward, up 3%, 25.6 million tonnes to the west, down 21%, and 21.1 million tonnes locally, a decrease of 9%.
"We've never done so badly, not since 2009. We have a critical situation with coal shipments today, so production is falling. The price is not even the main reason for today's drop. We cannot move coal from the Kuzbass," Tokarev said.
Tokarev also presented production figures for the region's biggest coal companies in H1 2024. Kuzbassrazrezugol Coal Company mined the most with 22.8 million tonnes, followed by SUEK-Kuzbass with 11.2 million tonnes, Stroyservice - 7.8 million tonnes, SDS-Ugol - 6.2 million tonnes, New Coal Mining Company - 4.6 million tonnes, Taltek Group - 3.8 million tons, Sibanthracite Group - 3.4 million tonnes and Resource LLC - 3.4 million tonnes.
Tokarev also said warehouse coal inventory was 20.6 tonnes for H1 2024. "If we were to value this in monetary terms, it's approximately $2 billion in funds that are frozen and are not working for the Kuzbass economy," he said.