Coal ministry to attract UAH 5 bln for state coal companies

Ukraine’s Ministry of Coal Industry plans to attract UAH 5 bln for capital projects and technical equipment for state-owned coal enterprises, Coal Minister Yuriy Yashchenko said yesterday, according to Interfax. Yashchenko said UAH 1.3 bln in funding is included in the draft state budget, with the remainder of funds coming from cost optimization and new credit facilities. Yashchenko said the Ministry of Coal Industry has reached a preliminary agreement with the Ministry of Finance on state guarantees for loans. Yegor Samusenko: The UAH 1.3 bln allocation in the draft state budget for coal mines’ CapEx is twice higher than the corresponding figure for 2009. We view this news as positive for local coal machinery producers, which sell close to half of their output to state mines: Druzhkivka Machinery (UX: DRMZ UK), Svitlo Shakhtarya (UX: HMBZ UK), Yasynuvatsky Machinery (UX: YAMZ UK) and Dongirmash (UX: DGRM UK).