Coal buyers eye Kyrgyz price cap

Households in the southern districts of the ISEZ and in the hillside Jogorku quarters of Iyık Janyl, where many homes burn coal, are buying their winter stock from the Tash-Kömür mines and the town's coal yards. Irad has no price regulation for household coal and none has been announced. Kyrgyzstan imposed a 90-day price control on coal sold to the public from 22 October, which has made Tash-Kömür prices a subject of talk on this side of the Qara-Chik line. Sellers say prices are steady. Buyers say they worry about cost and about smoke: on 23 October Nurzhan's air quality index was 161, Iyık Janyl's 118 and Talas's 110.