The JSW Management Board is unwaveringly implementing its plan to stabilize and strengthen the company’s position - current report no. 20/2025 depicts the first effects of optimization.
Last year the JSW Group posted a net loss of PLN 7.3 billion, compared to a profit of slightly less than one billion one year ago. The recognition of an impairment loss on non-financial non-current assets totaling PLN 6.4 billion was the primary factor contributing to this result. EBITDA in 2024, net of non-recurring events, was PLN 396 million.
Inconducive geological conditions and unforeseen operational events contributed to a decline in production. This means that in 2024 the mines belonging to the JSW Group produced 9.3% less coal and 8.6% less coke compared to 2023. Coal production topped 12 million tons while coke production was 3 million tons.
Market conditions in 2024 did not allow for offsetting the loss of revenue engendered by a smaller production volume. The nearly 19% decline in hard coking coal prices versus 2023 and the more than 30% decline in the domestic steam coal price shaped the blended average price for all the coal produced by JSW, which was PLN 899.28 per ton, down some 20% from the price commanded in 2023. This decline also pertained to the coke price, which was PLN 1,302.80 per ton, down 13.2% from the previous year.
The diminished production volume accompanied by the price decline caused the JSW Group’s top line to fall in 2024, which totaled more than PLN 11.3 billion. Drawing a year-on-year comparison, this figure is down 26.2%.
“The business model we inherited in May 2024 was not very flexible, especially in terms of costs, which exerted a direct impact on the present problems”, said Ryszard Janta, President of the JSW SA Management Board. “In the face of these challenges we took immediate actions to stabilize the Group’s situation. We drafted the Strategic Transformation Plan which we have been implementing on an unwavering basis since November of last year. This plan calls for the implementation of measures in four key areas of our activity: improvement of mining efficiency, optimization of purchasing processes, rationalization of capital expenditures and optimization of support functions. The posited outcomes of the Strategic Transformation Plan will enable the Company to continue to grow, increase output and operate on a stable footing in subsequent years”, adds Ryszard Janta.
Despite these unfavorable macroeconomic conditions, the Company is continuing to pursue its strategic investment projects targeting its further development such as modernizing the Coal Preparation Plants in the mines, deepening shaft III in the Pniówek mine and extending the surface Central Air Conditioning Station in the Budryk mine. The JSW Group’s capital expenditures on a cash basis totaled PLN 4.1 billion. With the Group’s development in mind, in early 2025 the Company submitted an application for a concession to explore the Dębieńsko 1 deposit and an application to extend the concession to extract hard coal and methane as an accompanying mineral from the Borynia deposit until 2042.
Employee safety also remains an invariable priority in the company’s efforts – last year JSW SA earmarked more than PLN 1.6 billion for prevention in occupational health and safety, and it designated nearly PLN 190 million to environmentally-beneficial activities. As at the end of December 2024, the JSW Group had 32,315 employees. Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa itself employed 21,321 employees.
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The JSW Group is the European Union’s largest producer of high-quality coking coal and a significant producer of coke, which are raw materials used to produce steel. Steel is crucial to the development and transition of the economy. Steel is used to manufacture wind turbines, machinery, vehicles (including electric vehicles) and building structures among other things. The JSW Group’s operations are vital to the transition and development of a climate-neutral economy.
In 2024 coking coal was given the status of a critical raw material for the European economy for the fourth time, i.e. a raw material of strategic economic importance at risk of supply disruption due to the high concentration of its production outside the European Union.
