Russia's coal industry has become one of the main economic casualties of the full-scale war against Ukraine, writes the Financial Times. Sanctions, rising costs, and falling global prices have led to the worst crisis in the last 30 years.
According to Rosstat, the industry's losses for the first seven months of the year amounted to 2.8 billion dollars — twice as much as for the entire year of 2024.
By September, 23 coal companies had ceased operations — about 13% of the total number, and another 53 are on the verge of closure, according to a report by the Russian Ministry of Energy.
“The coal industry is experiencing the sharpest crisis since the 1990s. Thousands of jobs and tax revenues for dozens of regions are at risk,” said Vladimir Korotin, CEO of Russian Coal, in an interview with Interfax.
Global prices for thermal coal in 2025 fell to multi-year lows, with a ton of coal now costing about 93 dollars, which is 78% lower than the peak prices of 2022. Meanwhile, in China — the world's largest producer and consumer of coal — production has reached a record level.
Additionally, Russian producers are forced to sell coal at large discounts due to sanctions and export issues. Calculations by the Financial Times based on Argus agency data show that at the beginning of 2022, prices for Russian coal were 60% lower than global prices, later Russian producers managed to find new logistics solutions and the gap was reduced to about 20%.