JSW’s Poland coal unit has announced that it plans to exit from the thermal coal production business and will focus solely on increasing its coking coal production in the region.
At present, around 20pc of the total coal produced by JSW Poland—Europe’s largest coking coal producer—is thermal coal. Radoslaw Zalozinski, JSW’s chief financial officer, told the media on Oct 9 that thermal coal was a by-product of making coking coal, but the company now plans to reduce this polluting by-product that has been causing environmental concerns in Europe.
Moreover, the company assured Artur Soboń, Poland’s deputy minister of state assets, during a meeting on Oct 8 that under a new model it had adopted, the coal producer would focus 100pc of its operations on coking coal production, which is still viewed as an important resource because of its use in the steelmaking process.
The change, media reports indicated, is also a part of JSW’s efforts to raise finances after the company’s production and sales were impacted by weak demand from European steelmakers due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.