ASTANA, Kazakhstan, September 14. Over 186,000 tons of hard coal have been delivered to Astana (Kazakhstan) by rail since May in preparation for the 2023–2024 heating season, Trend reports.
As Kazakhstan Railways (KTZ) stated, this figure is 1.5 times higher than the same period last year.
"In total, more than 2,700 wagons were unloaded, which exceeds the same period last year by 63 percent," - KTZ said.
According to the company, delivery of solid fuel for the needs of the regions is one of the priority types of transportation for KTZ.
Kazakhstan is one of the ten countries with the largest coal deposits in the world. Coal reserves in Kazakhstan today are estimated at approximately 33 billion tons, which is about 4 percent of the world's reserves. At the same time, 62 percent of the deposits are brown coal, and 38 percent are hard coal. Coal mining in Kazakhstan is carried out by 33 companies.
Kazakhstan Railways (KTZ) plan to transport about 29 million tons of cargo through the KTZ network in September of this year (within the main plan). In August, more than 26 million tons were transported through the KTZ network, which is 8 percent higher than the same indicator of the previous year.
The volume of cargo transportation by rail in Kazakhstan amounted to 145.9 million tons for the period from January to July 2023. The volume of coal amounted to more than 60 million tons, which is 40 percent of all transportation through the KTZ. In addition, 18.3 million tons of solid fuel and 41.7 million tons of coal for domestic consumption were exported from Kazakhstan.
