Russia's internal demand for both steam coal and coking coal has been rising sharply during 2003 driven by growing demand from the expanding power generation sector and the steel industry boom. Generation burn rose by more than 20 per cent to over 35 mt in the first quarter this year. According to the Russian Energy Ministry, total coal eutput in the first half of this year reached 134.6 mt, a rise of 12.6 per cent from the corresponding period in 2002. With Russia's total coal production coming from 133 deep mines and 128 opencast pits, 63.6 per cent of this increase came from open-cast mines. With overall production expected to reach around 260-270 mt in this calendar year, up from 240-259 mt in 2002, nearly all this increase is expected to be absorbed by internal demand rather than extra volumes being released for export.
展开▼
