November 30, 2024 - Losses of Russian coal companies in January-September 2024 jumped 4.1 times to 1.9 bln USD, surpassing profit totaling 1.0 bln USD (-73.7% y-o-y). As a result, net losses reached 0.8 bln USD compared to profit of over 2.9 bln in January-September 2023. The share of loss-making companies amounted to 52% compared to 35% in the same period last year.

In 2023, the profit of Russian coal companies decreased 2.1 times to 3.3 bln USD (-4.4 bln USD y-o-y). However, in 2024, the negative trend intensified due to falling prices on the global market and a sharp increase in production costs.

Additional factors that continue to have an adverse impact on coal miners’ financial results are limited transportation capacities of railroad infrastructure, high railroad tariffs and western sanctions.

For many Russian suppliers, the current level of global prices and production costs make coal exports unprofitable, forcing them to cut production and abandon projects aimed at developing new coal deposits.

With the new U.S. sanctions now covering over 50% of export volumes, Russia’s coal exports could keep eroding in 2024 and 2025.

Coal production in Kuzbass, Russia’s major high-quality coal mining region, fell to 163.8 mio t in January-October 2024 (-14.4 mio t or -8.1% y-o-y).

Total Russian coal exports over the same period dropped to 164.6 mio t (-15.6 mio t or -8.7% y-o-y).