The Khakassia coal industry is facing its toughest financial year on record, reflecting broader challenges across Russia’s coal regions amid weaker export routes and rising costs.
The coal mining industry in the Khakassia region experienced a deep crisis in the first 9 months of 2025, recording a net loss of 62 mio USD. Despite an 8% overall increase in coal shipments, reaching 17 mio t, one enterprise ceased operations completely, while others are utilizing only 15–30% of their production capacity.
This led to a 20.5% decrease in tax revenues to the budget compared to the same period last year and has sparked social tension.
The growth in shipments was driven by a reorientation of logistics flows: supplies to the west increased by 37%, and deliveries to the domestic market rose by 14%. However, shipments to the key eastern direction declined by 22.5%, which determined the overall difficult financial situation of the industry.
Regional authorities are calling for support measures, including the introduction of lowering coefficients for exports and providing a 12.8% discount on railway tariffs for southern and northwestern directions.
The importance of the coal industry for Khakassia remains critical: it directly employs almost 6,000 people, and when accounting for related industries and family members, roughly 10% of the region’s population depends on it.
Total net losses of Russian coal companies for the first 8 months of 2025 exceeded 2.3 times overall losses in 2024, which totaled 1.41 billion USD. The share of loss-making companies also increased to 67% against 52%.
Therefore, in 2025, the downward momentum in the coal industry is intensifying amid falling prices in the global market, an increase in production costs and ruble appreciation.
Additional factors that continue to negatively affect the financial results of coal producers are high railroad tariffs and limited transportation capacity of railroad infrastructure in eastbound direction.
Moreover, Western sanctions significantly reduced the number of countries importing coal, thereby exacerbating the decline in total Russian supplies as there are no alternative sales markets.
Source: CCA Analysis
