A fire at a Russian coal mine could impact 0.4m tonnes/month of coal supply to the seaborne market, amid an already tight market, sources said on Thursday.
The blaze broke out this morning at SDS-Ugol’s Listvyazhnaya mine in western Siberia, according to the region’s governor Sergei Tsivilev.
“That’s approximately 0.4m tonnes/month out of the market,” said a Russian coal trader, close to the situation, adding the mine’s produce – of high-grade thermal coal – was mainly sold for export.
This comes at a time of already tight supply to both the Atlantic and Pacific basins, which has seen front-quarter API 2 prices gain more than 20% since the start of the week to USD 156/t, at the time of writing.
An analyst with a utility also said the mine's output was predominantly shipped to European destinations, including Germany and Poland.
In a post to his Telegram account, Tsivilev said the ministry of emergency situations had received reports of smoke from the mine shortly after 09:00 local time.
He said 49 miners were still trapped underground, with one having died, although local media reported six deaths.