In January-September 2014 Poland reduced hard coal production by almost 7% to 52 million mt in comparison with the same period of the previous year.
Polish coal producers suffered a loss of $ 158 million in the period, due to the decline in demand for coal and rising prices amid rising production costs.
Thermal coal production in January-September amounted to 43.1 million mt, down more that 8% compared to the same period of 2013. At the same time, the coking coal volume increased by 0.7% and reached 9 million mt.
Hard coal sales volumes fell by 5.75 million mt to about 49.5 million mt, thermal coal sales fell by 11.6% to 40.6 million mt and coking coal by 4.7% to about 9 million mt.
Hard coal sales on the domestic market decreased by 7.2% mainly due to the demand decrease from power plants and CHP, which accounted over 80% of hard coal sales in Poland.
Hard coal exports fell around 30% to 6 million mt. State-owned trader Weglokoks’ exports fell by 31% to 4.7 million mt and direct exports by individual producers down 19% to 1.3 million mt.
87% of total shipments were send in the EU countries, in particular Germany imported 1.7 million mt of hermal coal, and the Czech Republic about 1.5 million mt.
Except the EU, Polish hard coal was sent to Morocco. Its thermal coal imports were about 70% of the total Poland’s shipments, not taking into account the EU, and amounted to 523.1 mt.
As of September 2014 the amount of coal stockpiled in state-owned coal mines was 8.43 million mt, up 5% in comparison with 2013.
The average hard coal price on the Polish market declined by 6.6% to 278.6 Zloty per mt, while the thermal coal price fell by 5% and the coking coal price by 13.3%.
The average production cost in the energy sector rose by 3.4% to 309.08 Zloty per mt.
Author: Ivan Prokhorov
