Deputy PM concerned about situation in coal industry

The upcoming session of the Russian State Council's board on August 29 willbe mainly devoted to the perspectives of the development of Russia's coalindustry, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Viktor Khristenkodeclared in an interview with journalists in the House of the RussianGovernment today. According to him, this problem needs to be consideredfrom the point of evaluating the perspectives of various economic sectorsthat make up the coal market. Among them are the energy industry, metalindustry and the communal sphere.Talking about the current situation in this sphere, Khristenko mentioned adecrease in the volume of coal production over the last several months. Thereason of that lays in lower demand for coal among its main consumers -mainly energy producers. However, all these are current problems of theindustry and they have "ways out." It is worth mentioning that the situation in the coal industry is supposedto be discussed at the next session of the State Council's board, chairedby President of Russia Vladimir Putin. .