Ukraine's coke production down in January-April

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.