PG Silesia CEO: If PGG cuts coal extraction it could spell disaster for the sector

The situation on the Polish coal market may be dramatic if coal extraction of the Polska Grupa Górnicza turns out to be much lower than planned for this year, said Michał Herman, the CEO of PG Silesia miner. PGG estimated this year’s production at 32 million metric tons of coal, but its officials have said that the figure will be revised. “There are signals that it could be a lot lower, even 26 million tons and then the situation would be dramatic,” Herman explained, adding that this kind of gap will not be covered by imports due to the level of reservation of bandwidth in ports. The possibility of importing, American coal may also be limited by its quality parameters. At the end of September, Deputy Energy Minister Grzegorz Tobiszowski said that between January-August PGG extracted 17.62 million tons of coal compared to the planned 18.53 million tons.