Poland-based coking coal producer Jastrzebska Spolka Weglowa SA (JSW) has announced its financial and operational results for the first nine months of the current year, reporting a net loss of PLN 1.09 billion ($290.29 million), compared to a net profit of PLN 704.4 million recorded in the same period of the previous year. JSW’s total sales revenues decreased by 24.5 percent year on year to PLN 5.2 billion ($1.38 billion), due to lower coal and coke prices amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Due to the epidemic, in the April-September period Jastrzebska Spolka Weglowa could not achieve its planned production volume. JSW Poland’s coal output in the first nine months this year amounted to 10.6 million mt, down by more than 2.8 percent, while its coke output totaled 2.4 million mt, down by four percent, both year on year.
Sales of the coal produced at Jastrzebska Spolka Weglowa’s mines in the first nine months were slightly lower than in the same period of the previous year, totaling nearly 10 million mt. The revenues from coal sales totaled PLN 2.6 billion ($692.39 million), down by 28.4 percent year on year.
In the first nine months, the producer’s coke sales were 14.3 percent higher, while revenues from the sale of coke and hydrocarbons decreased by 22.7 percent to PLN 2.3 billion ($612.49 million), year on year. Meanwhile, the company recorded a significant increase in sales in the third quarter. The coal sales volume of the company in the given period increased by nearly 30 percent and its coke sales volume rose by more than 54 percent, both compared to the second quarter.
“The downturn in the European steel industry had an adverse impact on the JSW Group’s financial standing. However, after a very difficult second quarter when, due to Covid-19, economic activity was drastically limited, we recorded a significant increase in sales in the third quarter. The JSW Group also incurred significant costs associated with the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic. They amounted to PLN 84.6 million,” Wlodzimierz Herezniak, president of the management board of JSW, said.