Ukraine's overall coal extraction increased 7.5% year-on-year, or by 250,000 mt, to 3.59 million mt in July, up from 3.34 million mt produced in July 2015, the energy and coal industry ministry reported Monday, citing preliminary data.
Coal output in July also increased by 34.5% in comparison with June, when the country extracted 2.67 million mt of coal, the ministry reported.
In January through July, Ukraine's coal output fell 1.1% year-on-year to 22.58 million mt from 22.83 million mt produced in January-July 2015.
Thermal coal production decreased 3.9% to 17.42 million mt in the first seven months from 18.13 million mt produced a year ago, but coking coal output increased by 9.8% to 5.17 million mt from 4.71 million mt, the ministry said.
Ukraine's coal production has been disrupted since June 2014 due to an armed conflict in Donetsk and Luhansk, the country's two key coal production regions. Parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions are currently under control of pro-Russian separatists.
Coal output in the government-controlled parts of the Donetsk region increased by 12.7% year-on-year to 9.03 million mt in January-July, up from 8.01 million mt a year ago. Production of coal in the government-controlled parts of the Luhansk region rose 1% to 2.34 million mt, the ministry reported.
At the same time, coal output in the Dnipropetrovsk region decreased by 8.4% to 10.15 million mt, down from 11.08 million mt, output in the Lviv region plunged by 23.6% to 940,000 mt from 1.23 million mt and output in the Volyn region dropped by 21.6% to 120,700 mt from 154,000 mt.
The state-owned coal mines extracted 3.51 million mt of coal in January-July, down from 4.02 million mt produced in the same period of 2015.
In 2015, Ukraine's coal output decreased to 39.76 million mt, down from 65 million mt in 2014 and down from 83.7 million mt produced in 2013, according to the ministry.
