Bulgaria's Maritsa East Coal Mines Plans 26 Mln T Output in 2010, 30 Mln T in 2011 - Media

The mines' output last year topped 24.689 million tonnes of coal, up from 23.928 million tonnes in 2007. Figures for the company's 2009 coal output plan were not immediately available. The mines produced 12.75 million tonnes in the first half of the year, 62,000 tonnes above plan, the company said on its website.

The company plans to invest 96 million levs ($70 million/49 million euro) next year and to achieve a 7.4 million levs profit, BTA quoted the mines' chief executive director Todor Todorov as saying. It did not elaborate whether Todorov referred to gross or net profit.

The company has invested half of the 110 million levs planned for the current year, Todorov said. It has targeted a 2009 profit of 1.2 million levs after erasing a mid-year loss of 23 million levs, Todorov said earlier this month.

The mines, which are part of state-run energy group BEH, supply coal to the 900-megawatt (MW) Maritsa East 3 power plant, owned by Italy's Enel, and to state-owned power plant, Maritsa East 2, with installed capacity of 1,556 MW.

(1 euro = 1.95583 Bulgarian levs)