Impact of sanctions: mines are closing in Russia's main coal region

Due to financial problems, eight coal enterprises in the Russian region have already stopped working, and hundreds of miners have not received their salaries for several months.

Western sanctions against Russian coal and difficulties in finding buyers in Asia have caused a large-scale crisis in the Kemerovo region, Russia's main coal region, which provides about 60% of total hard coal production and 80% of coking coal. The Moscow Times writes about this on Monday, March 3.

Due to financial problems, eight coal enterprises in the Russian region have already stopped working, and hundreds of miners have not received their salaries for several months. This was stated by the Governor of Kuzbass, Ilya Seredyuk.

"We are working in the most difficult conditions. Sanctions from Western countries have changed the structure of our export and import supplies. Falling prices on world markets, problems with coal exports, staff shortages, and high key rates have become a serious challenge for the coal industry. Many enterprises have already recorded negative profitability," Seredyuk said.

According to him, the total arrears in wages to miners reached 220 million rubles.

Cut off from Western markets, Russian coal miners are also struggling in Asia. India cut its imports of Russian coal by 2023% in 37, while China, the largest buyer, cut it by 13%. Total coal exports from Kuzbass fell 10,4% for the year, while production fell 7,3% to 198,4 million tonnes.

Due to the crisis, the Kemerovo region's budget has fallen short of 58 billion rubles in tax revenues, the governor emphasized.