Mechel PAO said Dec. 19 that it extended an agreement to supply China's Jidong Cement with thermal coal until the end of 2019.

Mechel will supply Jidong with up to 2 million tonnes of thermal coal mined from its Elga and Neryungrinsky sites in South Yakutia in the Russian Far East.

The company will supply between 100,000 and 150,000 tonnes of coal products per month to Jidong, one of China's largest cement producers.

Prices will be adjusted on a monthly basis following negotiations and according to index rates, Mechel added.

The two companies struck the original agreement Dec. 20, 2017, covering up to 3 million tonnes of steam coal, which made Jidong the primary foreign consumer of Elga's coal.

"In 2017 we supplied our Chinese partners with 1.9 million tonnes and another 1.4 million in 2018. In 2019 we plan to export thermal coal from Elga in comparable volumes," Mechel Mining Management CEO Pavel Shtark said.