Coal production in Ukraine fell in March

Ukraine's coal production fell 12.6% year-on-year to 2.98 million tonnes in March 2017 from 3.41 million tonnes produced in March 2016, the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry said, citing preliminary data. Coal output also decreased by 19.7% compared to February, when 3.71 tons of coal were mined.

In the first quarter, Ukraine produced 10.34 million tonnes of coal, up 3.4% year on year, or 340,000 tonnes, compared with 10 million tonnes of coal produced in January-March 2016, the ministry said. ...

The country's state-owned mines produced 1.32 million tonnes of coal in January-March, up from 1.58 million tonnes in the same period in 2016. Coal mining in Ukraine has been disrupted since June 2014 due to the armed conflict in Donetsk and Luhansk, the country's two main coal-mining regions.

Coal production in the government-controlled area of ​​Donetsk Oblast fell 12.8% year on year to 3.53 million tonnes in January-March, up from 4.05 million tonnes a year ago. Coal production in government-controlled areas of the Luhansk region rose 31.8% to 1.41 million tons from 1.07 million tons a year ago, the ministry said.

At the same time, the volume of coal production in the Dnipropetrovsk region increased by 12.7% to 4.98 million tons from 4.42 million tons. Coal production in the Lviv region fell by 2% to 383,600 tons from 391,500 tons, while coal production in the Volyn region decreased by 41.8% to 31,800 tons from 54,600 tons.

Ukraine produced 40.86 million tonnes of coal in 2016, up from 39.74 million tonnes in 2015, 65.0 million tonnes in 2014 and 83.7 million tonnes in 2013, according to the ministry.