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Rinat Akhmetov Kyiv, July 3 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Donbass Fuel-Energy Company, also known as DTEK and owned by Ukraine’s richest man Rinat Akhmetov, has established a coal-trading company called DTEK Trading, which will perform trading operations with coal on the Ukrainian and foreign markets, the corporate communications department of the leading Ukrainian energy company said.

The aim of DTEK Trading, a subsidiary of the electricity generating and coal mining company, is to conquer foreign markets and create long-term relations with generating and industrial companies outside Ukraine.

"The creation of DTEK Trading will assist in solving issues of principle importance for the company's development. In particular, this will allow it to increase the efficiency of the sale of coal extracted by DTEK's mines, systematize the process of providing its own generating enterprises with fuel, and increase coal sales inside Ukraine," a press release from the company reads.

The coal surplus in Ukraine is encouraging DTEK to actively export coal, the company said.

The consumers of DTEK's coal are electric power stations, coke chemical plants, metallurgical complexes in Ukraine, and electric power stations and industrial enterprises in Turkey, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, and Lebanon.

DTEK is planning in 2009 to increase coal exports by 6.3 times, to one million tonnes.

DTEK was created in 2005 to manage the energy assets of System Capital Management, Akhmetov’s holding company.