OREANDA-NEWS. April 18, 2007.  In the first quarter of 2007 the mines of Siberian Coal Energy Company (SUEK) produced 23.8 mt and sold 23.9 mt of coal, down 8% and 4.6% from the corresponding period of the last year respectively.

The main reason for production and sales volume decrease was low demand for fuel from Russian power generation and housing utilities due to abnormally warm winter and high level of hydro in rivers and reservoirs which resulted in higher level of power generation by hydroplants.

The domestic sales of coal were down 13% to 17.6 mt, of which 12.1 mt was sold to power utilities.

At the same time, SUEK export supply for Q1 2007 grew 30% to 6.3 mt. The highest share of exports was sold to UK, Korea, Japan, Denmark, and Finland.