Kiev — Coal stocks at Ukraine's power plants fell 16.1% month on month to 1.3 million mt as of July 30, the energy and coal industry ministry reported Monday.
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Sign Up Reserves of thermal coal, which is widely used at the country's thermal power plants, fell 12.3% to 1 million mt as of July 30 from 1.14 million mt as of July 2.
At the same time, stocks of anthracite, a type of coal with the highest calorific content, at power plants decreased by 29% to 294,600 mt from 414,700 mt, the ministry reported.
Inventories of coal are currently much lower than a year earlier, when power plants had a total of 2.12 million mt of coal as of July 31 2017, comprising 1.39 million mt of thermal coal and 725,200 mt of anthracite.
The government held an emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss what measures need to be taken to ensure power plants are prepared for the high-demand season.
"Those numbers that we have today are not impressive," Deputy Prime Minister Henadiy Zubko said. "We are behind schedule."
The government ordered the Energy and Coal Industry Ministry to take every step to make sure Ukraine will accumulate 2.6 million mt of coal stocks by November 1 at warehouses of power plants and heat producers, comprising 1 million mt of anthracite and 1.6 million mt of thermal coal.
