Coal stockpiles continued to build up in November

Coal stockpiles at Ukraine’s thermal power plants grew 10% during November and reached 5.9 mmt beginning December, Interfax reported Dec. 10. Thus, coal stockpiles are 58% higher, compared to the same period a year ago. At the same time, daily coal deliveries to thermal power plants decreased 3% mom to 112 kt in November, and daily coal consumption fell 6% mom to 94 kt.

Roman Topolyuk: The unusually high stockpile stats point to increasing oversupply on the domestic steam coal market, which will continue to put pressure on private coal miners, including Sadovaya Group (SGR PW) and Coal Energy (CLE PW). Sadovaya extracted merely 2.3 kt of coal in November (13x lower mom) as its mining subsidiaries have stood almost idle during the month. With a weak export market (API2 prices fell back 3% from beginning December to USD 90/t) and oversupply on the domestic market, coal producers are likely to face reduced consumption demand throughout 1Q13.