Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa (Coal mining company – editor’s note), thanks to the support of government programmes, is getting back on track. By the decision of the Polish Development Fund (PFR), more than half of the preferential loan granted at the end of last year was written off. JSW under the government’s PFR Financial Shield for Large Companies program.
In December 2020, JSW received a PLN 173.6 million soft loan. The PFR has just decided that it will be partially written off – in the amount of PLN 89 million 175 thousand. The loan allowed JSW to stabilize the situation during the most difficult period of the pandemic crisis. Currently, the company is increasing production and developing a strategy for the coming years. Annual production of coking coal has already reached 85 per cent of JSW’s outputs this year. It is worth recalling that last year, coking coal was, for the second time, included on the List of Critical Raw Materials for the European Union. It is an indispensable intermediate product in the steelmaking process; on average, one tonne of steel requires approximately 560 kg of coking coal. JSW’s recoverable coking coal reserves are sufficient for several more decades of mining.
– JSW fits perfectly into the European Green Deal, as we will soon be the last coking coal producer in the European Union. We are investing heavily in the coke segment because we see its future in it,” emphasises Sebastian Bartos, Vice-President of JSW.
Investments are also underway at JSW, including a new coking battery at Przyjaźń Coking Plant in Dąbrowa Górnicza. At the same time, the company maintains its plans related to the construction of new power units. In this way, it wants to achieve energy self-sufficiency and security of supply regardless of market fluctuations, which are currently very high.
Recall that the JSW Capital Group significantly improved its results in the first half of 2021. Both metallurgical coal and coke production and sales increased, which translated into higher sales revenues. In H1 2021, total coal production was 6.8 million tonnes (including 5.5 million tonnes of metallurgical coal) and coke production was 1.8 million tonnes. The Group posted a net loss of PLN 330.5mn in H1 2021 vs. a net loss of PLN 973.8mn a year earlier. Whereas, EBITDA for the first half of 2021 (excluding one-off events) amounted to PLN 339.4 million. The price of metallurgical coal for six months of this year reached PLN 416.86 per tonne and that of coke PLN 1,009.77 per tonne.