Ukraine's current coal reserves have almost halved

The current coal reserves in Ukraine have almost halved compared to 2018. This was reported by Olesya Tsuprik, expert of the department for research of oil product markets and industrial and raw materials resources of the State Enterprise Derzhzovnishinform.

According to the information of the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine (Ministry of Energy and Coal), coal reserves at domestic power plants (TPPs and CHPPs) as of August 19, 2019 amounted to 918 thousand tons, which is 798 thousand tons or 47% less than last year. Note that at the end of July 2019, this figure was 1,200,000 tons of coal (-445 thousand tons, or -27% of the 2018 figure).

The main reasons for this situation can be called a decrease in coal production in Ukraine and a decrease in imports. So, as of August 19 of this year, the volume of total coal production decreased by 18% (or by about 400 thousand tons) from the level of the same indicator in 2018 to 1,400,000 tons (as of July 31 - 2,500,000 tons -5% of indicator 2018). Coal imports (for the UKT FEA commodity group 2701) in Ukraine in January-July 2019 decreased compared to the same period last year. According to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, from 01.01.2019 to 31.07.2019 11,700,000 tons of coal were imported into the country (9% of the January-July 2018 indicator) for a total amount of USD 1,600,000,000 (in January-July 2018 - USD 1,800,000,000).

"Export of coal according to UKTVED code 2701 from Ukraine in January-July 2019 amounted to 9.2 thousand tons, which is more than 5 times lower than the same indicator in 2018 (49.1 thousand tons). That is, we can conclude that Ukrainian exports coal has ceased to exist in recent years, "the expert notes.

Therefore, the balance of thermal coal in Ukraine in recent years has been formed due to production and imports, the share of which, according to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, is approximately 27-29%.

Thus, based on the current tendencies of a decrease in production volumes and a decrease in coal reserves, it can be concluded that in the short term, the situation with the supply of coal to power plants can be improved only by increasing the rate of imports.