Raspadskaya boosts coking coal concentrate exports by 41% in 2014

Russian coking coal producer Raspadskaya boosted its export sales by 41% in 2014 to 3.05 million tonnes of concentrate, the company said on Friday January 16.

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It achieved this because of higher raw coal output, as well as its entry into new markets in the Asia-Pacific region.

Raspadskaya – 82%-controlled by Russia’s largest steelmaker, Evraz – did not specify which of the new markets it had entered. Shipments to the Asia-Pacific region accounted for 88% of the total export sales, while the rest of its exports went to Europe.

The company’s full-year domestic sale volumes in 2014 were flat, at 2.96 million tonnes.

In the fourth quarter of 2014, Raspadskaya boosted its coking coal concentrate exports by 85% year-on-year to 892,000 tonnes. Russia’s sales increased by 50% year-on-year to 849,000 tonnes.

The company boosted its total raw coal output by 80% year-on-year in the fourth quarter to 3.34 million tonnes.

The full-year 2014 raw coal output stood at 10.22 million tonnes, up by 31% compared with 2013. This slightly exceeded the company’s production plan of 10 million tonnes.

The goal was reached due to the “successful implementation of the restoration programme at the Raspadskaya underground mine and the launch of new longwalls”, the company said.

In 2015, the miner plans to produce some 12 million tonnes of raw coking coal.

Raspadskaya suffered from a deadly methane gas blast at its main mine, also called Raspadskaya, in May 2010. The explosion resulted in the long-term closure of three of the four working coal-faces at the mine.

Four new coal-faces were opened in the course of last year, and by November the company was operating four coal faces at the mine for the first time since 2010.

One coalface, which was opened in late 2012, had been depleted by July last year.