Ukraine almost doubles spending on coal imports in 2017

Russia, the United States, and Canada were the major suppliers of coal to Ukraine last year, the agency said.

Coal imports from Russia in monetary terms amounted to $1.552 billion (56.6%), while those from the U.S. stood at $682 million (24.9%), while imports from Canada totaled $182.2 million (6.6%). Further, coal imports from other countries were estimated at $327.6 million.

The country's exports of hard coal and anthracite doubled in 2017, to $105.5 million.

Read alsoCoal stocks at Ukrainian TPPs crawl up 0.7% within weekAs UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine started facing an acute shortage of coal since the summer of 2014 as a result of hostilities in the east of the country. It completely lost control over some areas in Donbas with coal mines. After that, the country began to import coal.

In 2016, Ukraine reduced spending on coal imports by 10% from 2015, to $1.467 billion.

In 2017, the two largest power generation companies that consume thermal coal contracted anthracite from South Africa (DTEK) and the United States (Centrenergo). At the same time, DTEK imports gas coal from the U.S.