Coal producer city generates one, buys two

ZONGULDAK - Anatolia News Agency

The coal producing city Zonguldak depends increasingly on imports. AA photo

Turkish mining city, Zonguldak’s coal imports have doubled due to increasing domestic demand as production amounts remain the same.

Turkey produced around 4 million tons of coal including the private sector in the last two years, and imported 8.1 million tons in the northern province of Zonguldak, already the richest city in terms of coal reserves with 1.3 billion tons.

Despite the state-run Turkish Coal Institute (TTK), the largest coal producer with 5 million tons of establishment capacity, being located in Zonguldak, where the coal imports rose considerably, production has been less than 2 million tons in the last nine years. Thus coal imports were boosted to satisfy industrial needs. Zonguldak also hosts two thermal power plants and Ereğli Iron and Steel Plant.

TTK, which makes investments worth 60 million Turkish Liras each year, has 4,000 vacant positions, said General Mine Union Head Eyüp Alabaş. “Even TTK has 14,000 positions; it has to maintain working with 10,000 workers,” he said.

Turkey paid $964 million for coal imports from the Unites States, South Africa, Colombia, Russia and Ukraine. The imports from Colombia composed the majority of the total imports, at 3.4 million tons. The imported coal is generally used for fuel and industry.