SUEK earmarks $2 bln for capex, acquisitions in 2023

KEMEROVO. Dec 21 (Interfax) - SUEK is earmarking $2 billion for capex and acquisitions in 2023, the Siberian coal and energy company said in a statement, quoting its CEO, Maxim Basov.

The company did not say what assets it was interested in and from what sector.

It did say that $1 billion would be invested in coal and $1 billion in its energy division.

SUEK plans to finish modernizing the Primorskaya and Tom-Usinskaya power plants, in the Primorye territory and Kemerovo region, respectively, as well as three Krasnoyarsk plants, and to "get new assets in European Russia on track." The company told Interfax that it was referring to investment in the Reftinskaya power plant in the Sverdlovsk region, operated by the group's Siberian Generating Company.

The coal division investment will go towards increasing mining capacity in the Primorye and Khabarovsk territories and Kemerovo region, purchase of new equipment and maintenance of washing plants.

Basov "emphasized the task of finding new suppliers of equipment and components, which has become more acute after the refusal of Western companies to do business" and was "confident that all the company's needs will be met," the company said in the press release.

It said an increasing share of equipment and spare parts made in China and Russia was being used at the company's enterprises. SUEK enterprises have become familiar with "more than 400 types of products."

SUEK also said it had "exceed production and sales for last year" when it mined 103 million tonnes of coal. "Demand for Russian coal has recovered at the end of the year," Basov said.

SUEK controls 25 underground and open-cast coal mines, 10 coal washing plants and modules, 27 thermal power plants, at terminal at the port of Vanino in the Khabarovsk territory and the Murmansk Commercial Seaport .