Amid the overall crisis, a sharp decline in production indicators has been reported

Almost three-quarters of Russian coal enterprises are operating at a loss. This data was presented by Dmitry Lopatin, Acting Director of the Coal Industry Department of the Ministry of Energy, at a State Council meeting on energy. According to him, 74% of companies in the sector are currently unprofitable, and 23 enterprises have already ceased operations. Lopatin specified that, according to Rosstat, the total losses of the sector have reached 263 billion rubles, and by the end of the year, this figure is expected to rise to 350 billion rubles. «Coal production has been falling for the third consecutive year — from 443.6 million tons in 2022 to 438.6 million tons in 2024, a decline of about 5 million tons,». Earlier, Deputy Minister of Energy Dmitry Islamov stated that in 2024, the sector also ended the year with losses of 112 billion rubles, with accounts payable reaching 1.2 trillion rubles and the share of unprofitable enterprises at 53%. In October, the Ministry of Energy forecasted further growth in debt to 1.5 trillion rubles by the end of 2025. Against the backdrop of the general crisis, a sharp decline in the production indicators of the Mechel holding was reported yesterday. In the third quarter of 2025, the company reduced coal production by 55% year-on-year, down to 1.28 million tons. Over the first nine months, production fell by 38%, reaching the lowest level in the past 10 years. Mechel’s net loss in the first half of the year grew 2.4 times, reaching 40.5 billion rubles — the highest since 2015. To support the industry, the Russian government approved a package of measures on May 30, including postponement of mineral extraction tax (MET) and insurance contributions until December 1, targeted subsidies to compensate logistics costs for coal exports, and the possibility of restructuring debt. According to the National Credit Rating (NKR), the crisis worsened after Vladimir Putin launched the war in Ukraine in 2022, when Russia lost part of its traditional export markets, including the European Union, and global coal prices fell sharply. While in 2022 the export price per ton of thermal coal ranged from $148–192 depending on the port, by the end of 2024 it had fallen to $72–106.