A scaling back of at least 50 percent in coking coal mining output is expected at Ukraine's Zasyadko mine after the flooding of the emergency section of the mine. The flooding in question followed the three methane gas explosions which occurred at the mine on November 18, December 1 and December 2, resulting in the death of 106 miners.
The reduction of the output of coking coal mined at Zasyadko mine may significantly hit the production capacity of Ukrainian steelmaker Ilyich. This is because, according to unofficial data, Zasyadko supplies most of its output to Avdeevsk Coking Plant, which supplies coke to Ilyich.
In addition, since Zasyadko's output constitutes 31 percent of the overall Ukrainian coking coal production volume, the scale back of production at the mine may also affect other steel mills in the country, which has already been experiencing a scarcity of coking coal.
In January-October 2007, Zasyadko supplied about 2.8 million metric tons of coking coal to the Ukrainian market, from which about 1.2 million metric tons of coke were produced.