Coal industry records nearly half-billion Polish zloty loss: daily
21:04
In a major setback to Poland’s ruling nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party that has always sought to keep the large mining communities happy in the south of the country to win votes at an election, a well-known Polish daily has published a report stating that the hard coal mining sector recorded a net loss of over PLN 460 million (over €100m) from January-November 2019 as compared to PLN 980 million (over €230m) profit a year earlier.
According to the article published by “Rzeczpospolita” on Tuesday, “increasing mining costs, increasing heaps of unsold gas and cheaper coal from abroad flowing into the country in a wide stream are affecting the entire mining industry.”
At the same time, the newspaper notes that prices of coal in Poland – contrary to global trends – continued to rise in 2019. At the end of November, the commodity price index for power plants reached PLN 266.35 per tonne and was 6 percent higher than last year. On the other hand, the price of coal for heating plants increased by 3% – to PLN 307.08 per ton.
“The biggest problem is the rising costs, but also problems with the sale of raw material – after a record amount of black fuel from abroad entered Poland in 2018, and the current winter did not bring bitter frosts,” the daily adds.
“Foreign coal is still a serious competition for Polish mines,” the daily declares.
According to preliminary Eurostat data, from January to November 2019, 14.9 million tonnes of coal were delivered to Poland – 16% less than a year earlier. The largest, 9.8 million tons, came from Russia.
