The plan was for coal mines to lose their status of separate juridical bodies and merge by geographic locations into public joint-stock companies. A typical coal enterprise under this model will have about 8-12 coal mines and some auxiliary operational units.
“This is the preparatory stage before the privatisation of mines and attracting of investments,” Ermilov said.
This statement has been followed up with real progress in the first months of 2003 with about half the mines now in the process of restructuring.
Meanwhile some financial results of Ukrainian coal industry activities in 2002 have been made public. Only 20 out of 165 national mines were profitable, with total profit of about US$56 million. Losses incurred by the remaining 145 mines totalled about US$320 million.
In 2003 the Ministry plans to continue development of three new mines – Nikanor-Novaya, Samsonovskaya-Zapadnaya and Zapadno-Donbasskaya No.4/42 – as well as increasing project capacity of two active mines.
Some 85 new longwalls are planned for introduction, 70 of them on state funds (about US$140 million). Some US$56 million of state funds are planned for capital development.
The start of the year was also marked by a big order for a Ukrainian stationary ventilator from Russian Norilsk Nikel. The manufacturer, Ukruglemach, owns 7 plants, two of which are located in Russia.
The ventilator was manufactured at Donetskgormach Plant where other mining equipment is manufactured, including belt conveyors, hoists, loaders, gears and other equipment. In 2001, Donetskgormach produced mining equipment to the value of about US$10 million.
