I'm very pleased to be able to welcome you to the results conference of JSW for 2023. On behalf of the entire management board of the company, I'd like to thank you for your extensive interest in this event and for your attendance. Today, I have the pleasure to discuss with you our results presentation for 2023, along with Mrs. Jolanta Gruszka, who is the Vice President for Sales, Mr. Robert Ostrowski, he is the CFO, as well as with Mr. Adam Rozmus, who's the Vice President responsible for Technology, Technical Affairs. Before we come on to the proper portion of the presentation, I'd like to draw your attention to the fact that we compared last year of 2023 to 2022. We should remember that we're comparing ourselves to an unprecedented year and year, uncomparable year in the whole history of JSW.
2022 was totally exceptional for our business and for the company. It was a year in which the company posted record-breaking financial results on account of an exceptional weave of factors driving coking coal prices up very high to unheard of previously levels, even $670 per ton in March 2022. As you know, the price is around $250-$300 per ton. And this was the result of basically weather-related disruptions in Australia, as well as the COVID pandemic, and it was also linked to the outbreak of war in Ukraine, as well as the geopolitical situation in Europe. It's worth having in mind and not look at the financial results for 2023 by thinking about the previous year, but having in mind previous years.
In every other year, the results we generated in 2023, which was a very difficult year, would be treated with enthusiasm by the market, and this would be a very good set of results. So JSW, in this period, generated a net profit of PLN 1 billion. Had it not been for the windfall tax paid by JSW as a result of the profits generated in 2022, and this windfall tax was PLN 1.6 billion, and we're the only company in Poland to have paid this windfall tax, then the net result for 2023 would have been very impressive. Having in mind these good results for these, in this last year, I'd like to thank very cordially the entire staff of the JSW, our business partners, as well as our shareholders and investors, and of course, we appreciate their support extensively.
So now, if I come on to the proper portion of the presentation. In 2023, the JSW Group produced more than 13.5 million tons of coal and more than 3.3 million tons of coke. So MCC, mining cash cost, was PLN 700 per ton. In 2023, we generated sales revenue of PLN 15.3 billion, with an average coking coal price of PLN 1,124 per ton and PLN 1,501 per ton for coke. And so if we look at EBITDA in 2023, it was PLN 4.5 billion, while net profit was nearly PLN 1 billion. And so we'll tell more about what contributed to that in subsequent slides, and later, I'll give the floor to the various members of the team.
So to recapitulate, to recapitulate the execution of the strategic goals in the JSW Group over the period 2022 to 2030, what I would like to do is draw your particular attention to the EBITDA margin, which in 2023 was 29.7% and was higher than postulated in the strategy, which was 25%. So JSW, taking advantage of the situation on the market, has been pursuing its commercial policy on an unwavering basis, which has enabled it to achieve very good financial results. As in the context of the efficiency of the JSW Group, unfortunately, we were unable to achieve the level of MCC and CCC that we wanted to, to achieve because of the growth in prices of materials, energy, and services, as well as the growth in employee benefits.
The unit MCC cost and CCC was affected by the lower level of production of coal and coke. In terms of reducing the carbon footprint in the JSW Group in 2023, it was down 2.3% over 2018. As you know, we assume that it will, w e're targeting a reduction of 30% by 2030.
When comparing it to 2022 and 2023, we can say that direct CO2 emissions will increase by 7.2% as a result of the increase in methane emissions of 7.1%, because there's more methane content in the coal seams, as well as a result of the greater coke production versus 2022. If we think about the diversification of revenue, the targets we have for 2030 are based on the planned increase in coking coal production at JSW, as well as technological changes in the European steel milling industry, linked to the implementation of the Green Deal. We assume that diversification will accelerate in subsequent years, but we're utilizing at present the geographic rent and focus on, we focus on the execution of our long-term contracts.
We've been successful in selling coke on overseas markets, and we're the largest supplier on the Indian market. Of course, the level of overseas sales will depend on the situation in Europe, where new opportunities are showing up, for example, the Ukrainian market, and we're penetrating that market quite strongly. We fell very short, we were not far from achieving our goal of having 10% of our revenue from the sales of products not related to our core business in 2023. We achieved our goal of securing our resource base of coal. So the investments, the CapEx, we have to open up new fields and extraction levels were more than PLN 600 million in 2023, as opposed to the targeted PLN 74 million on an average basis.
So we're opening up new seams and new deposits and new excavation levels in all of the mines at JSW. So we can say certain events that occurred in 2022 and 2023 contributed to the shortfall. So there were fires in Knurów-Szczygłowice on the Knurów section, as well as in Pniówek mine. Then we had the explosion and ignition of methane in Pniówek, and then there was a high energy shock that took place with the intense release of methane at the Borynia-Zofiówka mine in the Zofiówka section. Now, I'd like to give the floor to Adam Rozmus, who will tell you a little bit more about our operating results at JSW. So go ahead, sir.
Thank you very much. So on an annual basis, coal production in our group fell by 4%. Above all, this was the effect of the delay in commissioning the longwall in the Borynia section as a result of some difficulties with preparatory works. Budryk also had some geological difficulties, which made it difficult to launch two long walls. So we had pretty difficult mining and geological conditions, and even though we did a lot of prevention work, this led to some delays, and we weren't able to achieve the intended results. Last year, we also had to grapple with the non-completion of certain tasks in terms of the Bzie section because the deposit wasn't fully surveyed. Having that in mind, the progress was estimated by the mine.
Well, in reality, we can say that the conditions are much more difficult, partially because there's a greater slope, or the tectonics are much more extensive, and that meant that we weren't able to achieve the planned results. As you know very well, in December, in the Pniówek mine, we had a fire on the N2 long wall at Seam 4 0 4/4, and that meant that we had to stop exploitation of that longwall as well as longwall N3. So having a smaller number of longwalls in 2023 versus 2022 is a result of some of the delays in preparatory work, especially since we had to do some new cross-sections in the Bzie section because of the difficult mining and geological conditions.
But this was also a result of what happened in the Zofiówka, the mining accident, and we had to reorganize and change some of the scheduling for works. And so having a smaller number of longwalls in 2023 was a result of having to seal up, longwall 34 in the Knurów-Szczygłowice, mine. So we should remember that the number of longwalls that we operate does not have a direct impact on the production capacity of our mines, because every longwall has a different production potential. In JSW, we are operating from 20 to 25 longwalls, and that number depends on the, ability to launch individual longwalls in the very mines.
Thank you very much. Now I'd like to give the floor to Jolanta Gruszka, who's responsible for sales in the management team, and she'll tell you a little bit more about the market environment, landscape, landscape in last year. So I'll ask you to go ahead and take the floor.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. So when we compare the market ratios between 2023 and 2022, we have to have in mind what sort of factors took place on the commodities markets. So this discussion was already held. So 2022 was the third year of weather-related anomalies in Australia affecting coal supply. And so we've seen intensive growth in the demand for raw materials as the economies were being rebuilt after the decommissioning of restrictions leading to COVID-19 pandemic.
Of course, the war in Ukraine made a big impact on the prices of raw materials and commodities, and this applied both to steam coal as well as coking coal. And the sanctions on Russia made that the coal market meant that the coal market had to be reorganized, and that contributed to a very sharp increase in prices for steam coal. So in 2023, we can say in the European Union, we started to feel the negative consequences of the war being waged in Ukraine. We had high energy prices, inflation, higher cost of production, and so all of this exerting an impact on the steel production business. And so we see two speeds. So we have the global production of raw steel.
So it was nearly 1.9 billion tons across the globe, and so it was similar to the previous year's results. Whereas in the European Union, we saw a regression in steel production with respect to the previous year, and this was some 7.4% shrinkage, and so the production fell to 126 million tons. So the European Association of Steel, EUROFER, estimated that the consumption of steel fell by 6. 3% compared to 2022. And so the global flat level of production was primarily because of growth and demand in India, and so they're the second player after China in terms of global producers of steel. And so we can say the steel production grew by more than 11% over 2022. So we also saw some decline in coal prices.
So the semi-soft coal prices fell to a much greater degree than the prices of the top quality, coal, coking coal, hard coking coal, and that's because of the weaker or softer parameters. So let me remind you that we had lower production of steel. That meant that the demand for coke in Europe was lower, and so Europe is the biggest importer of coke in the world. And so that meant that the prices of coke also diminished both in Europe as well as in the Chinese market, where the situation in China was not too favorable. So on the next slide, we'd like to focus on some of the key changes that took place in 2023 versus 2022, and we can say that these changes have also affected Q1 2024.
The preliminary data were presented in our current report, published on 11 April 2024 in the current report. You can see some of the information about the operating results in Q1 of 2024. 2023 was another year in which we saw a falling of steel production in the E.U. It's an increase of more than 17% versus 2021 last year. We also observed a very big increase in the discount of softer coals with respect to hard coking coal, so premium hard coking coal. This discount grew to 34%, whereas in 2022, the average was 21%. We also see that in the latter half of the year, the prices of the top quality coal were on the rise.
That's because they were less available, and at the same time, there is more demand for the top premium quality coal. It's also worth mentioning that semi-soft coal have lost the support given by the steam coal market because mines that are producing semi-soft coal, well, they can always sell a portion of their products to the energy or the power market. And so when the demand on the power market became softer, this also had an impact on the semi-soft coking coal prices. And the third trend that we've seen last year, and will also have an impact on Q1 of this year, this is the low level of, well, the low level of the ratio from Chinese coking coal prices to TSI premium coking coal. So on the next slide, you see the quarter relations between JSW products prices to the market indices.
So in Q4, 2023, we see that the ratio fell. With respect to the reference, this is from, a nd so we're thinking about, you know, the period from July to September 2023, and so this ratio is down to 87%, and this is a result of the decline in the semi-soft coking coal prices with respect to the premium coking coal prices. And so we also had some held back deliveries from Q3, and so this had an impact on the prices in Q4.
So if we look at the ratio of coke prices, it's up to 88%, but here we should draw attention to the following fact, so that the prices reported by JSW are for the average, coke prices, including the small grades of coke, and whereas the market prices are for, blast furnace coke, so this ratio is always gonna be below one. So if we look at the negotiations of prices and what the impact was on, quotations, market quotations, market quotes, since we're selling, coke in Europe as well as on the overseas market and also at spot rates... so the quarterly prices and the monthly prices and the spot market prices, this make it very difficult for us to, define a relationship to the, you know, blast furnace coking and prices on an average basis.
So if we look then at the prices of steam coal, we can say that this ratio to the market is down to around 90%, and this is mostly because the market was slowing down. And so we exercised some of our options where they were contracted at lower prices, and so we had acceleration of deliveries for the current year. So the next slide presents the sales of products. And so if we look at the coal sales to internal customers, was related to the level of coke production in the group. So if we look at the various quarters in Q4 2023 versus Q3 2023, we see it was much higher.
Sales of steam coal were up by some 25%, but the sales of additional quantities, this is what I was talking about on the previous slide, and the launching in Q4 of supplies for this year, contributed to a significant decline in the price of steam coal of some 19.6%. So we can say, the increase in volumes compensated for the decline in prices, and that's why the sales were quite similar in Q4 and in Q3. So the lower level of sales of coking coal to external buyers in Q4 versus Q3, well, it was down by 5%. And this was pro rata or in line with the decline in coking coal production.
The decline in volume was offset by the increase in prices by 6.7%, and that meant that revenue was at the same level or at a similar level. In the full year, 2023, the coal sales was down by 22.3%, so by 12.3%. And so this is primarily because of steam coal, where this was down by nearly 30%, whereas the coking coal sales were down by less than 3% because it was 2.7%. And so compared to 2022, we can say the coking coal prices fell by more than 25%, whereas we saw that the steam coal prices were up by more than 57%, and that meant that the revenue in 2023 was down by nearly 22%.
Sales of coke in Q4 2023 were down by more than 2% versus Q3, and the price was also down. This was less than 2%, so a small decline, and this contributed to a very small decline in revenue of, you know, 2.9%. Last year, coke sales were up by 2.9% versus 2022. However, the significant decline in price in excess of 31% contributed to revenue regression by nearly, you know, by roughly 28%. So let me remind you that 2023 was a very difficult market for the coking market, for the coke market, especially for merchant cokers. So we have the low level of the ratio of prices of coke to coal, meant that we had soft financial results of coking plants, so low levels of profitability.
I think it's worth mentioning some of the specific natures of the coking market. Only 4% of the coke is actually sold in the world. The rest of the coke is basically coke produced in coking plants owned by steel manufacturers, and we can say that the production of coke is very inflexible. What was very important for the coking plants was the fact that we were able to retain and acquire new sales markets. Now, as we move on to the next slide, here you can see inventories, and if we compare the last two quarters of last year, we can see that the change was very small.
But if we compare Q4 of last year to Q4 of 2022, we can say that the inventory is up by more than 23%, by 147,000 tons, but the primary increase in inventory is because of steam coal inventories growing by 167,000 tons. The inventory of coke was a little bit above 285,000 tons, so it's up quite significantly over Q3. But we're also talking about, you know, the inventories we also have in the ports for operational purposes. And so we can say that the increase is primarily in our ports, where it's already been sold and booked in Q1 of this year. So thank you very much for your attention.
Thank you very much, Madam President. And so now, Mr. Adam Rozmus will recapitulate the execution of our investment program at JSW Group.
So thank you very much. So the CapEx in JSW Group in 2023 was up by more than 53% over the previous year on an accrual basis. The greatest increase in revenue pertained to the coal segment, and was precipitated by an increase in the CapEx on investment construction. So it's up by PLN 435 million- PLN 1,032 million. The purchase of ready or finished investment goods, so this was an increase of PLN 449 million- PLN 879 million. And then they have the expensable mining pits at an increase of PLN 211 million- PLN 1,028 million.
A significant portion of this CapEx is related to the execution of the key investments in the coking coal deposits. If we look at the coke segment, we can say CapEx in 2023 was up by 5.6% over 2022, and here it's worth drawing your attention to the increase in the line item called Modernization of Coking Battery Number 4 in the Przyjaźń coking plant , and this is an increase of PLN 220 million- PLN 268 million. We continued the investments of the energy generation unit in the Radlin coking plant. We have the significant growth of almost PLN 59 million, which is for purchasing CO2 emission allowances. We've had significant investments of an environmental nature of more than PLN 452 million.
Thank you very much. I want to give the floor to Robert Ostrowski, who is the CFO, and he'll present to you the financial data of the JSW Group. So go ahead. Take the floor.
Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. So I'll speak traditionally, just as after every quarter, I'd like to present to you information about the financial situation standing of the group. We've closed the year, so we're showing data in 2023 versus 2022, and we have slides and graphs to show you information for Q4 and Q3. We have some important caveats as we discuss the results, just as Mr. Rozmus said. So 2022 was a record-breaking year, and when we make comments about 2023, basically, this is linked to what took place in 2022.
But as Mr. Rozmus said, the results in 2023 are very good, with one correction: that the net result and, you know, the state of cash, well, we also have the windfall tax, having made a major impact, which we paid in 2023, and this was introduced into the financial statements. So if we look at the consolidated financial results, and so we have PLN 50.3 billion in sales with the correction over 2022, which is a 24% reduction over 2022. And so if you think about the accounting EBITDA, which is in the financial statements, is PLN 4.56 billion. So without one-offs, so it's more than PLN 5 billion . So we'll talk about that a little bit later in the presentation.
So the net result is almost PLN 1 billion, having in mind the windfall tax, which made a pretty big impact on the final results. And so the previous year, we had PLN 7 billion, and so that was an extraordinary result. So it's worthwhile to note that Q4 was closed with a profit of PLN 152 million . We had a loss in Q3, so this is a major improvement. If we look at working capital, which we're showing on the next graph, has in mind the funds that we invested in our closed-end investment fund. So this is something we present in the balance sheet and the non-current assets. So the investments in the FIZ, so the closed-end investment funds.
So we have PLN 6.163 billion, so it's down by PLN 1.7 billion as compared to the end of year 2022, but this is a result of the factors that I already mentioned to you. So on the next slide, if we think about the bridge, I'll talk about the major factors that contributed to the sales level in 2023 compared to 2022. So the biggest factor, which had a negative impact on revenue, was the change in coking coal price, which on average was down by 25.6%. So this is PLN 356 per ton. So the revenue is for quite significantly, and the second very major impact, coal prices. So this is the second key product in our portfolio.
So we have some a decrease of some 31%, and so the PLN 2.05 billion . And so these two factors, taken together, determined the decline in sales revenue of the overall group. The next thing is the decrease in volume of coals, where we had revenue down by more than PLN 500 million. So this is more than 1.5 million tons of steam coal sold. That's less than. But this product, at the same time, had an average increase of sales price of some 50-odd percent, and this led to revenue increase of PLN 67 million. So if we think about steam coal and the changes here, so we had an increase, basically, in the revenue.
The next negative element, which affected revenue, was the volume of coke sales, which is down by nearly 174,000 tons. So this is nearly 3% down, and so PLN 260 million less in sales. And the last negative factor is the decline in hydrocarbons. So the revenue was PLN 278 million lower than what we saw in 2022. And so I think it's worth mentioning that the volume of coke sold by the group was higher in 2023 than in 2022. It was up by some 92,000 tons. And so we can say the overall revenue of the group was down by 24%, where we had a very good value of more than PLN 15 billion in sales revenue, which was a very good level. The next slide.
Now, we can talk about costs and by kind. The general information about this graph, where you see the core categories of costs by kind, by nature, we can say that it is PLN 15.8 billion, and so it was up. Employee benefits were up. I can tell you what happened there. Materials were up by PLN 600 million and some external services were up. We can say 2023 is under inflationary pressures. We saw raw materials, energy prices are up, as well as salary costs. This is not a syndrome that applies to JSW financial results, but generally, it applies to all businesses across Poland. Let me tell you a few more details about the individual cost categories. Employee benefits are nearly PLN 1.7 billion.
So the biggest impact was the change in this cost, and this was increased by more than PLN 1,369 million. So nearly 30% up, the costs were up by nearly 30%. What contributed to that? As we reported to you previously, during the previous results conference, we signed some salary agreements with the employees. So the salaries were up by more than 15%, and so this was an increase of PLN 727 million. In parallel, there was an increase in the value of the preventive meal. So it was up from PLN 30 -PLN 54 in 2023, and so that was an increase of PLN 107 million in that line item.
We also reported previously, if we think about, that this was the basis for determining the free coal allowance, and this also was debited to the costs of employee benefits. So basically, the average price of one ton of coal in 2022 was PLN 837. But because of what happened in the raw materials market, especially in the steam coal market in 2023, the value of one ton was upped to PLN 2,059, and for the purposes of calculating that free coal allowance. As you know, we also had two one-offs paid to the employees. One was based on the salary agreement signed in July of last year, and we had a payment of PLN 262 million.
So we had another pay agreement for a one-off that took place in October, and basically, that led to an increase in the costs of employee benefits by PLN 354 million. Similar decisions were made in 2022, so year-on-year, the results is by PLN 143 million. And so decisions about employee benefits took place also across the group. And so if we think about the largest increases, so JSW SIG, which is preparing employees to work for the mines, so we had an increase of PLN 120.5 million, and that's a result of the average headcount moving up to work for the mines. And so we have the company, PBSz. And so we had an increase in the sorry, in employee benefits by PLN 80 million.
This is more as a result of pumping up headcount in order to deliver this, services to the customers of that company. And so then we had an increase of PLN 54 million in terms of increase in base rates for employees. So this is the biggest line item in change, it's almost PLN 1.7 billion. Then the next item is about the increase of materials and energy usage, and so prices of energy, raw materials were on the rise. Employee benefits, who are working for our, suppliers, were also moving up, and so this is up PLN 674 million. And there's a whole number of catalogs that we're using for our core business in our mines. So preparing, mine walls and extracting coal. So materials that we use to shut down various, mining pits.
I won't discuss that in a greater length. The next line item that was up was external services. It was up by PLN 557 million, nearly 30%. This is a result of inflationary pressure amongst our suppliers, and this took place in 2023. If we look at depreciation, was up by PLN 216 million. This is a non-cash line item. But having in mind the accounting rules that we have in place with the retrospective approach as of 2023, so we have to capitalize those costs when we think about preparing longwalls, and then we use the natural method to settle for them. So the usage of the longwall, and so then we depreciate those capitalized costs, and this is the main line item here for this depreciation.
So we can also say that this depreciation of capitalized costs was something that had an impact here. The last element that's worth commenting here is the increase in others. Here we show above all what happened in JSW KOKS , and this was the estimated cost of CO2 emission allowances, certificates, and this was PLN 78.5 million. Then there was also an allowance made to the price energy price difference disbursement fund. So this was for JSW KOKS , and this was an amount of PLN 12 million. The next slide shows the impact of the costs on the mining cash cost, MCC. This is measured per ton on an average basis in 2023 versus 2022. In 2022, it was nearly PLN 519 .
It grew as a result of all of those other cost elements that I mentioned. Materials, energy, employee benefits, and others. It was more than PLN 700 , and it was an increase of nearly 35%. One correction about the volume as a result of these various events that the president referenced. We had a decline of volume by 565,000 tons. This is a decline of 4%, and that led to MCC costs, so the MCC moving up by, you know, nearly 20 PLN per ton. The next cash element is what happened with coke. It doesn't having in mind, of course, the inputs, so the coking coal for coming from JSW or from imports.
So the main impact that linked to that increase, where it was an increase of nearly, you know, 25%, was taxes and fees. And this is linked to the basically retirement of the CO2 emission allowances. And so that made an impact on the price per ton. That was quite significant, so it's more than, a nd as a result of making that payment into the fund for the energy price difference disbursement fund. Another thing were external services, with the exception of transport of the coal inputs, and so this is an increase of more than PLN 20 per ton. So transportation services without transport, so it's PLN 377 per ton, and then we had other costs per ton. And so we saw we had an increase of nearly PLN 13 per ton for employee benefits.
So we had the base rates that were moving up by PLN 6.41. So nearly half of the increase in this cost category. We also had actuarial reserves increase. This was an increase of PLN 4.12, and so it's nearly PLN 13 per ton increase. Another category is energy. So for JSW Coke, this is not electrical energy, but steam, which we use in technological process, and it's PLN 7.82 per ton, whereas the electrical energy cost led to a decline because we had a lower volume of energy purchased from the marketplace and a lower price. So it's by nearly 200 MW per hour, and so we had a decline in the price here of a few zlotys per ton.
Maybe I can say a couple words about two other factors that had an impact. So we had the depreciation, so it's PLN 1.83 per ton, and then we had increase in co-production that was, so it's 107,037 thousand, so it's more than, you know, 0.4% over the year. So if we look at mining cash cost and cash conversion cost, and so I won't discuss maybe the upper graphs. But what I would say, if we look at the bottom graphs in the mining cash cost, so there are two factors that had a negative impact, and so the impact is PLN 160 per ton, but the volume itself increased the cost, so with lower production of coal was near. It was the impact was more than PLN 22 per ton.
In coke, one factor drove up the CCC by more than PLN 23, but another one decreased it by PLN 10. So as we sum up these main categories with respect to the EBIT of the group, what I can say. So in 2023 versus 2022, so EBIT fell by more than PLN 2.5 billion. So I'm not gonna explain the categories about volume and prices, because this was discussed previously, but the volume and price of coke reduced the EBIT by more than PLN 2.05 billion. The remaining sales, PLN 278 million, with a minus sign as well. And then we had three point some odd billion zlotys, which reduced the EBIT in 2023. The other factors, which are a result on other operations, generally speaking, PLN 629 million in plus.
The other factors, PLN 1.12 billion, then PLN 216 million in depreciation, and then one-offs. What sort of one-offs contributed to it? Improved EBIT in 2023 on an accounting basis. So first, there was the benefit, somewhat PLN 600 million in the costs. It was treated as a one-off. So in the group, PLN 67 million was also treated as a one-off in, you know, one of the companies of the group. Then we had the non-financial assets being adjusted, so it's nearly PLN 207 million. And of the more important costs in mines, we had PLN 53.5 million. These are the results of what happened in Pniówek longwalls and the Knurów longwalls, and of the key one-offs, that would be about it.
So if you think about the segment's impact on EBITDA and the adjustment in a minus in terms of volume and prices, is PLN 5.2 billion was a negative impact. Then the coke segment is PLN 1.36 billion, which is also negative. The other segments in the PLN +167 million, and so exclusions of consolidation, PLN 102 million . This is a result of not achieving profits on the inventories. So as a result of intragroup transactions, we also have PLN 133 billion in terms of long-term contracts that are intragroup transactions, according to IAS 15, that have to be eliminated from internal transactions.
We have profits that weren't realized in terms of non-current assets of PLN 33.5 million, and so the EBITDA is PLN 5.017 billion. Now a few pieces of information about our financial ratios. If we can start with our working capital. With respect to our assets, we have seven somewhat billion of short-term assets. We have almost 27.8 billion in assets. Let me add here, if we look at a consolidated basis, we treat the FIZ, the investment fund, differently. It's shown only on the asset side and net assets. So the net asset value in the consolidated, we show it separately, so we have the gross value of the fund, so some PLN 7.6 billion.
On the other hand, we show as a short-term liability as a result of sell-buyback transactions of PLN 1.9 billion, and this also has an impact on the way the results of working capital are presented. So working capital at the end of the year is PLN -1.313 billion . But I would add that the, here, the fund is traded in non-current assets and not as a cash position, as liquid cash. And the next slide that talks about the balance sheet, the long-term line items. So short-term line items. So if you think about inventories, receivables and cash, along with cash equivalents, and it's adjusted for our short-term or current liabilities, and so loans and debentures. So we have PLN 1.313 billion in working capital.
This is negative as well on an accounting basis. If we look at the coverage ratio, here we have two graphs. One, which shows you the pure accounting view. This is what I mentioned a moment ago, and we can see the value at the end of the year of 0.94%. So we could say that fixed capital is not sufficient to cover our assets, but we also have funds from the closed-end investment fund. So if we include that in the current, assets, then we would have full coverage of our long-term assets with fixed capital. So it depends on whether or not the fund is included, so in terms of the financial data. And so the net debt ratio, so we have, interest-bearing, liabilities, so leasing, loans, and credits.
We can say we show that this in two different views, in 2023 and 2022. So we have the pure accounting view, with the presentation of the closed-end investment fund, including sell-buyback transactions, and so it's -32. And so the negative value is a positive here. That means we have more cash than we have, interest-bearing liabilities. So if we look at it on a net basis, then the value of this ratio is -6.198 billion . So that means that it's a very positive financial ratio, which speaks to the financial condition, and we're worth all of the group at the end of the year. And maybe say a few words about op cash, operating cash flow. So it was some PLN 4 , 76 million.
So we have a decrease to some PLN 2.26 billion. So the profit before tax was PLN 2.87 billion. So the depreciation is PLN 1.609 billion. And then we had the adjustment of inventories PLN -168 million, and then PLN 162 million of accounts receivables in the group and other entities across the group. Then we have an increase of payables by PLN 567 million, and so it had a positive impact on the cash flow of the group. And so other operating cash flow, so it's PLN 3.4 billion. So then we have tax liabilities, including the windfall tax, and so it's PLN 2.975 billion. So we can say these are the major flows in that category.
We also had expenditures to purchase non-current assets, property, plant, and equipment, so PLN 3.9 billion. Then we paid down loans of PLN 670 million, and we have the PFR loan that was commented many times previously. The balance fell by PLN 354 million last year. We had payments linked to leasing, PLN 290 million, and then we had PLN 795 million because of loans. Basically, this is more or less all of the information that we had. I'm ending my mission here at JSW on the date of the 6th of May. I'd like to thank you very much for your attention.
Thank you very much, Mr. President. So, ladies and gentlemen, as we run our business, we should, we cannot forget about how important the residents are, our neighbors are. We want to be very good neighbor to them. We run open dialogue with the local governments and representatives of the local communities... In 2023, we paid more than PLN 96 million directly to local budgets as a result of various taxes and fees. We're also the largest employer in the region. We have more than 32,000 people employed across the group. What's particularly important, among the nearly 2,700 suppliers of materials and services, 60% of them are local suppliers. So to sum up our efforts in ESG, if we look, look at the letter E. So our environmental protection capex in 2023 was in excess of PLN 452 million.
Last year, we had some 96 MMCM of methane, so 6% more than we did in 2022. So this is the amount of methane we captured. We're also pleased that we've received two high ratings, B-, in the CDP rating, in terms of climate reporting as well as safety. In the entire group, we've been working with higher places of learning and vocational schools. More than 1,000 pupils are in our stipend program, a scholarship program. So if we think about corporate governance, we were the first entity in the mining sector in Central and Eastern Europe to receive a green loan. So the margin here depends on fulfilling the goals of sustainable development by the borrower. So we've been able to secure PLN 1.65 billion in funds, and this will underpin the execution of our climate-related goals.
We also launched a project to prepare JSW to fulfill the reporting duties under the CSRD directive and ESRS standards. We're also pleased by having taken second place in the competition for the best annual report in terms of our integrated report for 2022. So ladies and gentlemen, the overall results presentation, where you can find a lot more interesting information summing up 2023 in terms of what our entire group has done. Well, you can find that presentation on our website in the Investor Relations tab, so I'd like to encourage you to review that material.
So now, we'd like to go on to the Q&A session. So I'll we have some questions from investors and analysts, and so the questions that have been posed by the investors and analysts will be read by our analyst, [Marcin Stępak] , and I'll go ahead and ask him to read out the questions.
Thank you very much. So the first question is about the expected level of production in 2024 versus in reference to, coking coal, steam coal, with the production mix and coke. What can you see in terms of the quarters? Do you uphold the goal of 14 million tons of coal, or is the plan of producing 16 million tons and a mix of 90% over the next two to three years, is that still your goal?
So thank you very much for the question. Mr. Rozmus, to ask the question, to respond to the question.
So ladies and gentlemen, having in mind the events that transpired in Pniówek in December, in early April in Budryk, we are doing some detailed analysis about the forecasted production levels in 2024. Today, we think that the coal production level in 2024 will be roughly 13.5 million tons, but I wouldn't treat that yet as the company's official forecast. We anticipate that in Q3 and Q4, production will be higher than in the first half of this year. So the efforts we've taken to increase the mix of coking coal should allow us to be above 80%. But in terms of the level of production in the midterm, having in mind changing conditions, we may have to, we do see the necessity to update the strategy of JSW.
The next question: the level of [quarter] works in upcoming years and the CapEx for that, do you intend to reduce that to about 4x?
And having in mind declining production, is it justified to do tunnel work for 75 km of galleries?
Well, having in mind the strategic investments the company is pursuing, linked to opening up new levels and regions, and the need to rebuild our longwalls, we believe that this level of quarter works is optimal, and we want to basically pursue this ratio according to the current strategy. We don't give forecasts on expenditures for corridor works, and we're totally transparent because we report on the actual amounts on a quarterly basis.
Next question, please.
It's about the expected price paths for Australian coking coal in 2024 and 2025. So contracts for coal have fallen to $230-$250 per ton.
So I'd like to ask Jolanta Gruszka to respond to the question. Please go ahead.
So as you know, and we've emphasized many times during the conference, we do not publish market forecasts. During today's presentation, we have talked about the factors affecting the raw materials market, the things that are more predictable, but I think it's worth mentioning that there's a major concentration of producers and consumers of the top or premium coking coal, and that means that the indices are quite susceptible or vulnerable to any type of fluctuation, either on the demand side or the supply side.
If we think about the price range that was discussed in the question, between March and April, we saw a sharp decline in premium coking coal prices from above $300, so $300 to roughly [$220 some odd dollars]. According to many analysts, this decline has bottomed out at the cost support level. According to many analysts, well, if the price should not fall below that level. But to what extent prices will increase, this will depend on many hard to predict factors. And the factors that affect the coal market mean that this market is very difficult to forecast and predict, and frequently, analysts' predictions and forecasts for a given period vary among one another very strongly. So we really can't do any type of forecasting here or publish that. We can't respond to that question any more specifically.
Thank you very much. What about the next question?
What sort of steps are being taken to optimize the structure and level of mining cash cost and cash conversion, coke conversion cost?
So I'd like to ask, Mr. Robert Ostrowski to take that question.
So ladies and gentlemen, maybe I should begin. The nature of the operations of a company like JSW, where we're operating in the mining sector, is very capital intensive, energy intensive, where our costs linked to employee benefits represent a very major portion of the costs of operations. We have inflationary pressures in terms of the materials and services purchased from external entities. So optimizing MCC or CCC costs, well, there are efforts that are possible.
We do them, and some of the most important ones, where we invest a lot of money in order to capture and utilize methane and produce energy from that methane. As a result of that, over the upcoming years, the idea is to use that to produce energy for our own internal needs. Ultimately, we'd like to have 50% methane drainage, and so this is methane that is utilized to a large extent, but there's still a lot of room to capture more methane and utilize it for the energy purposes we have. And so building central air conditioning units underground, we understand the conditions in which miners are working at high temperatures.
That means that efficiency is hampered in terms of occupational safety and health, and so we make major expenditures in mines, and that means we can extend the effective, the length of effective working time of employees. That makes their work more productive. And there are a number of other things linked to the digitization, optimization of work, and we're purchasing equipment and machinery, and so we assume that in subsequent periods, this should increase productivity in our mines. In the coking segment, what's important is the modernization of battery number four or the charging system. And so to a top charging system, and so, so we'll have less 35 inputs and Type 35 coal inputs, and so we can use more soft, semi-soft coal to do that. And I think it's worth mentioning a second investment in the coke segment.
So the construction of the power generation unit in Radlin coking plant, which will use coking gas, and this will reduce the costs in that area. So generally speaking, in terms of these categories, in terms of what's happening to optimize costs, these are the major initiatives that we've undertaken and are really being rolled out.
Next question, please.
The next question is about the expectations in terms of CapEx over 2024 and 2025. What will be the breakdown into segments? Should we assume that PLN 4 billion CapEx is justified, having in mind lower output?
I would ask Mr. Rozmus to respond to that question.
So generally speaking, we don't comment forecasted values for upcoming years, but what can I say is that the CapEx, well, we should say that the coal segment is the key segment. So roughly 80% of the CapEx will be allocated to coal, 15% to the coking segment, and 5% to the rest. So executing our investment plans, well, we do this based on the current annual investment plan and having in mind the strategic, the strategy of the company.
So if we think about investments, the idea is to be able to produce in the future, so the level of CapEx that we incur in individual years has a direct impact on having longwalls ready for future production. And this will have an impact on the results of our group in the future. Well, if we think about the market conditions for coal, as well as for steel and coke, these are all things that are pretty important.
So thank you very much. What about the next question, please?
What is the idea to use the cash you currently have? Does the management board intend to recommend a dividend payment from retained earnings and the result in 2023?
So I'd like to ask Mr. Ostrowski.
Well, thank you very much. Well, as you've learned from the presentation of the results, cash in the group is lower than one year ago as a result of the market prices, volumes, and the cost structure, but also because of the windfall tax. Today, the idea of how cash should be used, well, this will be linked to execute production processes with respect to the scope that we've presented, and we want to continue those major processes, which ultimately will ramp up the efficiency of the overall group. And the second question is about the recommendation of a dividend.
In terms of a recommendation, well, since we're in the process of putting together the management board in full, and we're working on the financial statements from the reviewer, but the decision was made that the new management team would take, and the new people in the board would take, make their assessment of the results, and they would prepare their assessment and the recommendation. So in May, the management team in its new composition will make that decision.
Thank you very much. So next question.
How does the company intend to react to upcoming changes in the steel milling industry, having in mind the DRI, technology and what's happening in electricity? And so we can see that the steel milling transition is becoming more and more realistic in Europe with the utilization of public funds or public aid from the governments.
I would ask Jolanta Gruszka to respond.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, we are tracking all of the innovations, new technologies, and decisions that are being implemented with respect to the decarbonization of steel milling, so reducing emissions in the blast furnace and thinking about what should actually replace the blast furnace production. So if you look at steel milling, there are a lot of things contributing to a transformation. So based on decisions that have been communicated recently by most of the steel industry companies in the short term, well, these companies have decided to use electric arc technology. Well, there's a question mark about the access of scrap metal and electricity that's required for utilizing that method, and there's a full awareness of the most innovative technologies are very capital intensive and require a lot of capital expenditures.
So the, s o electric furnaces is one idea, but at the same time, production will be continued in blast furnaces. So if we think about our company, we know there's a need for coke in the European Union countries, but this demand will fall over time. But having in mind our strategic goals, we're focusing on utilizing our geographic rent. But as a company, we've been preparing for years, and we've lived through a number of crises on the European market, and we're preparing to penetrate new markets outside of the European Union. So diversification is something that we're pursuing. Maybe it's not taking place at the same pace as assumed in the strategy, but we're utilizing our geographic rent. But as decarbonization accelerates, we will also accelerate our diversification to go beyond the European Union .
Thank you very much. Are there any other questions?
Yes, we have several more questions. What's happening with revenue diversification and opening up to offer new products like, uh, hydrogen, graphite, or, um, needle coke?
Maybe I'll respond to that question. Well, ladies and gentlemen, when we think about diversification of the core business of the company, well, JSW is working in a number of areas. P rimarily in terms of assessing opportunities, in terms of participating actively in alternative markets. Here, we should mention three major areas: the company's presence in the supply chain for the strategic raw material, which is, synthetic graphite, developing hydrogen-based competencies and new technologies in terms of the production of coke. And so JSW's activity in terms of graphite, we're actively participating in the operations of the ECGA Association.
Basically, producers of graphite and carbon materials are members of that association, and so we became a member, associate member in 2023. So we have the ability to set up relationships with partners of this alternative market for steel producers. So the general assembly of that association is underway, and we're setting up some strategic partnerships, partnerships in terms of the producers of graphite, electrodes, and raw materials. JSW is a part of that partnership as a producer of coking tar. This year, we have joint ventures planned to promote the role and significance of synthetic graphene for the E.U. green transition, mostly in terms of the needs, greater need for producing batteries and being dependent on imports from outside of the E.U. So the partners of JSW are companies operating in Poland or other producers who are members of that association.
So ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to emphasize that JSW is also active in lobbying by making decisions to the research center of the European Commission. The main idea is to raise awareness of the coking coal and how important it is as a critical raw material for E.U. and for hydrocarbons in the European supply chain. So this is a strategic key market for the E.U., and we're also analyzing the ability to apply for European funds for research projects, development projects, investment projects. So if we think about hydrogen, we're developing our skills through a research project in a daughter company called JSW KOKS , and the processing coking plant. So in 2025, we should complete the research phase to confirm the hydrogen separation technology from coking gas.
So the production magnitude is roughly 0.5 kg of hydrogen per hour. The next stage of the project is a pilot phase, where we should be able to produce 7 kg of hydrogen per hour. The other activities of the company are to assess the potential engagement in terms of cooperating with other suppliers of technology to process, coking tar. We have done some analysis which suggests that in the short term, if we change or adapt, the scale of production would not be favorable to the company, 'cause it would because it would destabilize the current market. We do believe, however, in the mid and long term, this is something that we should consider, because the current market of coke buyers may change substantially, having in mind what's happening with the steel market in the European Union. So thank you very much. Any other questions?
Yes, we have three, four questions. So are the future needs of the customers and their demand for the quantity and quality of the various kinds of coal and coke being taken into consideration over the next three to five years? When you make your investment plans, do you take into consideration these factors?
So once again, I'd like to ask Mrs. Gruszka to respond to that question.
Of course, yes. Our group plans its investments having in mind the needs of its business partners. We have long-term contracts. We are constantly in contact with them. We exchange information about their needs, both related to quantities as well as qualities of the various types of coal. And we also have the opportunity to modify the mix of supplies, having in mind current quality parameters.
So as a company, we do take into consideration the requirements of our business partners, and we're always in contact with them.
Thank you very much. Next question.
So the liquidity funds with the PFR, where it says the management of the company will not recommend a dividend to the shareholder meeting, and having in mind the current report Number 40 of 2023, does the management board plan to, plan to basically recommend a dividend to be paid in September of 2024, so after the final payment for that loan is made, the pay down?
Well, this question is to Mr. Ostrowski, so I'd like to ask you to respond to the question.
Well, this is a good question, but as I mentioned to you previously, the topic of distributing the financial results of the company, this is gonna be one of the first decisions made by the management team in its new composition. The new composition will be in place as of May 6th, but having in mind the recommendation, well, the final decision will be made by the ordinary shareholders meeting. Of course, having in mind all of the conditions linked to the limits and limitations on making those decisions, well, all of those limitations will be taken into consideration when that formulation, when that idea is formulated.
So all of the other questions have been responded, so I think these are all of the questions that have been prepared. So I'd like to thank you very much for the responses. I'll give the floor to the CEO.
Well, thank you very much, Marcin. Well, ladies and gentlemen, this is everything that we've prepared for you today. So if you have any questions about our results for 2023, I would encourage you to pose those questions and deliver them directly to our IR department. We'll certainly respond to those questions, and we won't leave any questions unanswered. So, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the entire management team, JSW, I would like to thank you very much for your attendance and for your interest in the operations of JSW. I'd like to wish you a good day. Thank you very much.