OREANDA-NEWS. In the first quarter of 2007 the mines of Siberian Coal Energy Company (SUEK) produced 23.8 million tons and sold 23.9 million tons 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 million tons, of which 12.1 million tons was sold to power utilities.

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