Ukraine may impose a five million mt quota on coking coal imports for 2009, director of the department for development of economic sectors at Ukraine's economy ministry, Oleg Pendzin, has said. The project resolution on coking coal import quotas was prepared by the Ukrainian cabinet of ministers at the request of the country's coal producers.
According to Mr. Pendzin, in 2008 Ukraine imported around 10 million mt of coking coal, while in the current year, taking into consideration the country's decreased steel product output, about five million mt will be required.
However, Ukraine cannot afford to completely refuse imports of coking coal, due to the high level of sulphur in domestic coking coal and due to insufficient domestic mining, Ukraine's deputy minister of industrial policy Vladimir Severnyuk added.
Meanwhile, representatives of state-owned mining enterprise Ukraine's Coal have called on the country's steel producers to purchase domestic coking coal, even if at higher prices compared to those of imported material, in order to support the Ukrainian mining sector.
According to preliminary results, in January-March 2009 Ukraine decreased its coking coal imports by 51 percent year on year to 1.58 million mt.