In the first four months of 2006, Ukrainian
production of
coking coal fell 9.1 percent year on year to 6.056 million tons. Anatoliy Starovoit, the General Manager of the Association of Coke-Chemical Enterprises of
Ukraine, reasoned this fall in the coke
production as a decrease in demand for this material inside the country. Furthermore, he added that the export of coke experiences some difficulties nowadays due to the high cost of transportation. Accordingly the plants are decreasing their
production capacities.