Ukraine is gradually stockpiling coal, Minister of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine Volodymyr Demchyshyn has told the RBC Ukraine publication.
"We are gradually stockpiling it. An additional 40,000 tons arrived at stations on January 20 and 20,000 tons arrived on January 19. We have the opportunity to stockpile gradually, in small quantities because we have imports," said Demchyshyn.
At the same time, he said that stocks were still far from being enough.
"There should a million tons more coal for us to be calm. We cannot yet accumulate such volumes because deliveries from Australia and South Africa are quite expensive and complex. This is because they are inciting panic - what are we carrying there, and is corruption not involved? - and traders are afraid to deliver it. Another issue is the complex logistics, and it is expensive: delivery by sea costs us almost USD 100 while its cost in Ukraine is UAH 1,100 or about USD 70 at the exchange rate, which is much cheaper," said the minister.
As reported, Ukraine experienced a critical situation involving coal at its thermal power plants and consequently with production of sufficient electricity in the fall of 2014. This is primarily due to the conflict in the Donbass.
As a result, Ukraine reached agreement on purchase the necessary coal from South Africa and Russia. Ukraine received about 138,000 tons of coal from Russia in the first 11 days of January 2015. In general, the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry expects to receive more than 600,000 tons of Russian coal in January 2015.
