The Industrial Policy Ministry is forecasting a shortage of about 10 million tons of coking coal in 2009.

Industrial Policy Minister Volodymyr Novytskyi announced this to journalists.

«Shortage of coking coal is a serious problem that cannot be solved quickly,» Novytskyi said.

According to Novytskyi, the shortage will be the result of importation of small quantities of coking coal, the absence of a deep-water port, and insufficient volumes of mining by Ukrainian enterprises.

Moreover, Novytskyi said that the problem of shortage of coking coal would be solved by increasing the volume of importation of coking coal from Russia, increasing the volume of coal mining in Ukraine, and construction of deep-water ports.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the Ukrpromzovnishekspertyza state enterprise is predicting higher prices of iron ore and coking coal in 2009.

The prices of metal goods have been falling on international markets since July (a fall of 40-45% for some goods) while the prices of the raw materials used by metallurgical plants are not falling.