Ukraine's coal extraction increased by 16% year-on-year in January, or by 501,000 mt, to 3.65 million mt, an energy and coal industry ministry official said Monday.
January production of thermal coal, which is used by the power generation sector, increased by 28% to 3.09 million mt. Extraction of coking coal, which is used mostly in the steel making industry, dropped by 24% to 566,500 mt.
Ukraine's coal production was 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, while about a half of these regions, including a number of coalmining assets, are controlled by the government.
Coal output in the government-controlled parts of the Donetsk region rose 0.8% year-on-year to 1.26 million mt in January, up from 1.25 million mt a year ago. Production of coal in the government-controlled parts of the Luhansk region soared by 75% to 641,500 mt.
At the same time, coal output in the Dnipropetrovsk region rose 14% to 1.6 million mt, output in the Lviv region increased by 42% to 127,400 mt, but coal production in the Volyn region dropped by 50% to 10,200 mt.
The state-owned coal mines extracted 463,900 mt of coal in January, down 0.7% year-on-year.
Ukraine produced 40.86 million mt of coal in 2016, up 2.8% from 39.74 million mt produced in 2015, according to the energy and coal industry ministry.
Coal output decreased from 65 million mt produced in 2014 and from 83.7 million mt in 2013, according to the ministry.
