In recent weeks, Kuzbass Fuel Company JSC has been subjected to unfounded information attacks in the media and telegram channels by the Kuzbass administration, which is urgently solving the problem of providing the population of Kuzbass with preferential graded coal. JSC KTK has been informing the Kemerovo Region administration about these risks since April 2024, and since mid-2024, it has been proposing joint work to prevent these risks and implement new principles for distributing supplies of preferential graded coal, which the Kuzbass administration is currently implementing. If the Kemerovo Region administration had responded promptly to incoming requests and begun to act in a timely manner, there would have been no problems with the supply of preferential graded coal to the population.
For over 20 years, Kuzbasskaya Toplivnaya Company JSC has been a supplier of thermal coal for the needs of the population and housing and communal services enterprises of Kuzbass, Novosibirsk and Omsk regions, and Altai Krai. The company also supplies coal to large energy entities in Russia with a supply geography from Kaliningrad to Khabarovsk, thereby ensuring the country's energy security. 85-90% of the coal of the Kuzbass Fuel Company is shipped to the domestic market. Contrary to the statements of representatives of the Kemerovo Region administration, JSC KTK, as a producer of energy coal, was created 20 years ago using funds from private investors and is one of the few large enterprises in Kuzbass, built from scratch using private investment, and not on the basis of privatized state coal mining enterprises created back in the USSR, in compliance with all laws and regulations applicable to economic entities in the field of subsoil use.
Through its subsidiary Kuzbasstoplivosbyt LLC, which manages coal warehouses in nineteen municipalities of the Kemerovo Region, KTK JSC has supplied thermal coal to the population of Kuzbass at preferential prices throughout its history as a coal producer, covering most of this need of the region. Thus, in 2024, JSC KTK supplied residents of Kuzbass with more than 600 thousand tons of coal, including 400 thousand tons of DPK/DPKO grades, incurring losses of up to 1.5 billion rubles on this supply.
As a socially oriented company, JSC KTK carried out this activity in cooperation with the Kemerovo Region administration on a voluntary basis, since the current federal and regional regulations do not impose an obligation to provide the population with solid fuel on any individual coal producer. At the same time, JSC KTK has fulfilled and continues to fulfill in full all obligations stipulated by current legislation and contracts concluded by the company.
It is important to note that, recognizing its responsibility to the population of Kuzbass, already in April 2024, Kuzbass Fuel Company began working with the administration of the Kemerovo Region regarding coal supplies to the population in 2025. Initially, economic conditions (prices) were formed under which the company could fully implement the program of coal supply to the population, including grades. These prices were based on the cost of production, and also took into account the losses that the company would incur when selling the screening (small) grade of DOMSSh coal, which is of little demand on the market and is obtained during the production of DPK grade coal in the proportion of 70% small coal / 30% DPK grade coal.
In the absence of confirmation from the Regional Energy Commission of Kuzbass of the requested level of coal prices for the population for 2025, JSC KTK sent several requests to the Kemerovo Region Administration from September to December 2024 regarding the organization of coal supply to the population, including a request to reduce the share of coal from JSC KTK in the total number of deliveries and a proposal to involve other coal producers in the implementation of this task in proportion to the size of their share in coal production in Kuzbass. At the same time, the company guaranteed the openness of the warehouses of Kuzbasstoplivosbyt LLC for any third-party coals.
Until the last days of December 2024, the Kuzbass administration did not meet JSC KTK halfway on any of the directions announced by the company. JSC KTK, in turn, realizing that taking on obligations for the entire volume of deliveries, including graded coals, creates a threat to the enterprise, including the suspension of operations and non-payment of wages to the workforce, was forced to make a decision to almost completely stop the production of graded coal. At the same time, in order to ensure the energy security of the region's population, JSC KTK assumed obligations for the supply of the entire annual amount of raw coal (RC) required by the population of Kuzbass and signed an agreement with 19 municipalities of the region for the supply of 480 thousand tons at a price set by the Regional Energy Commission of Kuzbass, which does not cover the cost of coal production either at JSC KTK or at other similar enterprises in the region. This obligation has been duly fulfilled by the company since the beginning of this year. Also, JSC KTK agreed to ensure the supply of up to 30 thousand tons of graded coal in 2025, which significantly exceeds its share in the total coal production in Kuzbass.
Earlier, in the reports of the information platforms of the Kemerovo Region administration, the Kuzbass Fuel Company was called the only producer of graded coal in Kuzbass. This is not true, since according to open data, about 20 more coal opencasts and mines in the Kemerovo region also produce graded coal.
Let us recall that, based on the results of 2024, the volume of coal production by JSC KTK (5.8 million tons) amounted to 3% of the total volume of coal mined in Kuzbass (198.4 million tons - according to the Ministry of Coal Industry of Kuzbass).
