Ukraine plans to increase imports of coal from the United States amid a shortage

Ukraine is looking to boost US coal imports as the country's winter coal reserves fell to their lowest level in three years.

DTEK, Ukraine's largest private energy producer, said it intends to import 150,000 tonnes of US thermal coal after previously state-owned power plants focused on importing only anthracite coal.

“The stability and uninterrupted supply of coal to our thermal power plants in the face of shortages requires a serious decision,” said Vitaly Butenko, commercial director of DTEK Energo.

Ukraine began to experience coal shortages after it closed trade in February with the main coal-mining areas of Donetsk and Luhansk, currently controlled by a pro-Russian separatist.

Coal reserves are insufficient, Vsevolod Kovalchuk, acting head of the state energy company UkrEnergo, said. He said the government has developed a contingency plan to avoid capacity cuts in the winter, including additional coal supplies from the US and South Africa.

Coal stocks at thermal power plants in Ukraine as of Monday were 29.7% lower on an annualized basis, at 1.112 million tonnes.