Thomas Gorgeous new president of the Katowice Coal Holding – Polish Radio

Thus, the level of stocks at the mines dumps decreased to approx. 5.5 million tons – according to data from the Industrial Development Agency.

Katowice branch of the Agency to monitor the situation in the mining industry for the needs of the Ministry of Energy. The Friday indicators characterizing the coal sector in April show that mining was trying to adjust the size of production to the market situation.

In the first quarter, rising coal stocks

the first quarter of this year, coal production was 0.4 million tonnes higher than sales, which resulted in an increase in the amount of raw material piles. April brought a reversal of this trend – mines unearthed this month of 5.2 million tons of coal and sold 5.7 million tonnes.

Thus, at the end of April the amount of carbon on piles amounted to approx. 5.5 million tonnes , compared to almost 6 million tonnes in the end of March and more than 5.8 million tons at the beginning of this year. A large part of the carbon on the dumps is a raw material, for which the customer made the payment.

Since the beginning of the year to the end of April mines unearthed a total of 22.9 million tons, with sales of 23 million tons – by the results of April size sales exceeded production levels during the four months of the year.

at the end of April, the mines employed 89.6 thousand. employees

Since the beginning of the year, employment in the mining industry decreased by nearly 2.5 thousand. people – the end of April mines employed approx. 89.6 thousand. employees. The reduction of employment while maintaining output at a level comparable to last year is an increase in productivity.

The financial sector is determined primarily low coal prices. ARP did not publish data on consumer prices in the first four months of this year.

In the first quarter loss per ton of coal was 30 zł

A month ago, but given that in the first quarter average price of a ton of coal amounted to 231.65 zł (decrease of 16.1 per cent. to the first quarter of 2015); tonne of steam coal cost an average of 215.43 zł (decrease of 12.1 per cent.), and coking coal 303.57 zł (decrease of 24.8 percent.). In the first quarter loss of mines on each tonne of coal amounted to approx. 30 zł.

The world is still an oversupply of coal and its low prices

Analysis of the Katowice branch of the ARP indicates that the phenomenon characterizing the global coal market in April, mainly low prices of the raw material and the dominant oversupply. This applies to both the Atlantic region, and the Asia-Pacific region. Another factor reducing the demand for coal in April was higher and higher temperatures in the northern hemisphere.

Prices in the Asia-Pacific region, where demand in some emerging economies remains high, still outweigh those in Europe, where high production of renewable energy that replaces fossil fuels, the progressive increase in energy efficiency, population decline and economic growth.

the price of coal in Western European ports: 45-47 dollar per tonne

April 1 living index for the Western European ports was estimated at 45.6 USD per ton of coal, or about 2.68 USD above quotation from the last week of March. In the next three weeks of April the price of coal at ports fluctuated from 47.58 USD to 46.41 USD per tonne. Inspires some optimism that increasing coal imports to China, which reached the highest value since July last year – suggest experts.

PAP, jk