Afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I'd like to welcome you to the results conference of the JSW Group. My name is Barbara Piontek. I'm the Acting CEO as of 1st of March of 2021. I'd like to welcome the management team. On my left side, we have Mr. Jarosław Jędrysek , who's the CFO. On my right side, we have the development response Management Board member, Mr. Tomasz Duda. He's also Acting Technological Director. We also have Włodzimierz Hereźniak, who's responsible for Sales. It's very important for JSW to have the stable development of the company. We're able to achieve this by improving the efficiency, by doing organizational, managerial and production improvements. This is above all possible by taking care of our business partners, but above all, about our employees and staff.
In the near future, we have a number of challenges and priorities which we will pursue with great diligence. We would like to focus on our core business of the company. We want to improve our mining processes. We'd like to stabilize those issues linked to investment by pursuing them consistently. We want to continue doing the preparatory work, which will ensure the stability of the company on the marketplace in the upcoming period. The next thing is work safety. Our employees are our investment, and that's why we will take great efforts to ensure that we can enhance the safety of their work and also, for example, ensuring that they have working conditions. The third area is sales.
We know that we're part of the global trends and we're subject to everything that's happening on the global markets, and that's why we're going to stabilize the commercial activities as we continue to work closely with our partners and enlarge our operations on the global markets. We're also aware that today we are participants of the green order, and that's why environmental issues are of crucial importance to us. We're in the process of preparing our environmental strategy, in which we'll focus on the utilization of methane, the sustainable utilization of waste, as well as the utilization of water. We will be consistent in terms of building the circular economy, and we're going to ensure that the circular economy is implemented in our company. We are also diligent in terms of following activities in the field of corporate social responsibility.
As a responsible local partner, we'd like to support the local communities and we want to get involved and execute revitalization, reclamation projects of post-mining premises and we want to mitigate all of the environmental impacts. Thank you very much. We'd like to go on to the results of the group. We have the following highlights. Coal production was some 3,397,000 tons. It fell by 16.6% versus Q1 2020 because we had fewer longwalls. Our coke production is up by 11%. It came in at 916,000 tons. If you look at met coal and coke prices, we had PLN 413 for coal. This was down by 15.4%. Coke price is up by 5.7%. It came in at PLN 885. Total coal sales were up.
If we look at revenue sales, we had nearly PLN 2 billion in revenue. Our EBITDA grew by 132.0% and it came in at PLN 112 million. The net result, we've improved by nearly 15% and it's minus PLN 179 million. If we look at our quarter-over-quarter, as I've said previously, we take efforts to ensure that they're done on an ongoing basis and we want to be consistent, unwavering and steadfast here in terms of our ability to mine coal in upcoming periods. We came in at 21.8 thousand running meters and this was 3.5% up. I'll ask Mr. Tomasz Duda to present the results of the group.
Ladies and gentlemen, if we look at coal production in Q1 2021, we can say that it was 3,397,000 tons. It's down by 9.9%. From the production we saw in Q4 2020, and it was also lower than what we had in Q1 2020. The lower production, as Madam CEO had said, was the result of the lower number of longwalls. This was linked to the scheduling of longwall production in subsequent quarters. It should be higher. The annual production should be at a higher level than what we saw in 2020. If we look at the corridor works in turn, in the first quarter of 2021, we did some 21.8 km of corridor works. This is up 11.2% from Q4 2020, and it's at a similar level, a slightly higher level than what we saw in Q1 2020.
If we look at the mining cash costs, it was PLN 433.26. It's higher than the mining cash costs we had in Q4 and also higher than what we had in Q1 2020. This follows from the lower amount of production in Q1. This should fall in subsequent quarters, that meaning the mining cash cost. If we look at the inventory of coal we had, as at March 31 2021, it was 1.7 million tons. This inventory is down from what we saw at March 31 2020. We've gradually been reducing the inventory levels, and this shows that we've been able to sell productions. If we look at coke production and inventories as well as the cash conversion cost, we can say that production in Q1 2021 was 916,000 tons.
This is more or less at the level of Q4 2020, and it's higher than what we saw in Q1 2020. In turn, if we look at the utilization of production capacity, we're basically at the maximum level of 100%, just as was the case in Q4 2020. The cash conversion cost, which is measured in PLN per ton in Q1 2021, was PLN 162.04. This cost has fallen from the unit cost in Q4 and in Q1 2020. We also see the inventory of coke in the group is falling. At March 31 2021, we had 89.1 thousand tons. This is a level that's lower that we've seen on the 31st of March 2020. Thank you very much. Now I'd like to ask Włodzimierz Hereźniak to tell us a little bit about the market environment. Thank you very much.
Ladies and gentlemen, the situation in the marketplace, as we've indicated in the table with the information we've given to you, it's a very complicated situation. We have the historical prices for the production of steel goods, and this is something that's seen on the European market and on the global market. We have growth in steel production of 10%. The level of growth in European Union is a little bit smaller. If we look at the spot prices for coking coal, well, it's a very schizophrenic situation. Coke prices have grown by 43%. For blast furnace coke in the Chinese market is up by 53%. If we look at coking coal spot prices, they're down by some 17%. We all know what this is a result of. This is because of the war that's been underway for several months between China and Australia.
We all know that China is the dominant player in terms of the production of steel and coal and coke. The impact on the prices is rather odd. Curious. We have some fresh information, we can say in the course of a single day on the spot market for Australian coal, it's up by more than $10. This is the type of mark we're grappling with in terms of coking coal prices. This is the first time in my lengthy history of work in the sales of coke and coal. That we see such a major disconnect between the prices of coke and coking coal. The situation is very complicated, the situation is changing on a daily basis, that's why we have to be very urgent and vigilant in watching the situation, because we're in the midst of critical months.
If we look at Q1 and the prices of coke, well, they've been on an upward trend, nearly 43% up. If we look at the ratios between prices, we're in the middle of the band for coking coal prices. They're at a low price. Well, this is linked to our major buyers, this is the price formulas are based on spot prices and the relations between Australia and the rest of the world. If we look at the coke prices, we can say in the first quarter, the price growth was very visible, that's why in the near future we will see a minimum level of inventory. The coke production is roughly 100% of our technical capacity. That's the level of utilization of capacity. If we look at steam coal prices, this is a less and less important product.
We're doing everything we can to have as much coking coal mining as possible. By 2030, as you know, we'd like for that percentage to grow to nearly 100% in practical terms. We'd like to achieve these objectives. If you compare results from between last year and this year, we can say the growth has been quite substantial. The investments we've made in the wash plant, especially in Knurów, Szczygłowice as well as in Budryk, well, that's the impact they will have. We'll have a bigger and bigger percentage of coking coal in the overall percentage of coal produced. We're selling all of our coal. If you look at Q4, Q1, you can say that basically we have a similar level of sales and the revenue is primarily driven by price. We're trying to produce as much coke as possible.
We're utilizing the coal for that purpose, but quality is important. That's why we have to source some coal from other sources in order to maintain the proper level of coke quality. We can say that these prices are gradually growing. If we look at coke sales, the average growth has been more than 18% between Q4 and Q1 of this year. This is not a surprise. This is the sales of coke and hydrocarbons. This is up by some 30%. This trend is very marked. If we look at the coke sales to external customers, well, the numbers are quite similar to what we saw in the previous year in Q1. As we recall, the COVID year was a very complicated year.
We had a lot of coke and coal that we had to store because it was the previous year, especially Q2, was very high when we look at those inventories. I think that's it if we look at the sales of coke. Thank you very much. Now we can go on to the next block of a very important topic. This is the investments in the JSW Group and what we intend to do in the near future, in the next quarter. I'd like to ask Tomasz Duda to take the floor.
Our CapEx in the group in Q1 2021 was around PLN 411.8 million. This is down by nearly 27% versus Q4 of 2020. This is a result of how the plan is spread over time, the schedule. Subsequent quarters, we should expect higher CapEx. We have the capital expenditures in JSW itself. This was PLN 359.1 million. This CapEx figure is down by more than 23% versus Q4 2020. This is a result also of the distribution over time, the schedule of CapEx or investments, generally speaking. Year-on-year, we can say that the CapEx in JSW will be at a comparable level.
If we look at CapEx in JSW KOKS S.A., so in Q1 2021, we saw a CapEx of PLN 23.1 million, which is down by some 15% versus Q4 2020. If we look at subsequent quarters, the CapEx will be higher, and this will be linked to the higher level of investments in the coke segment. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Now Mr. Jarosław Jędrysek will tell us about the financial highlights of the group.
Thank you very much. Let me give you some commentary on the financial highlights in the JSW Group. If we look at sales revenues in Q1, it was nearly PLN 2 billion. Up some 12% from the last quarter of last year. We see some revival. We saw higher coke sales revenue as well as hydrocarbons. We have more coke sales in Q1, uncertain . We also had 19% up, the coke prices on an FCA basis were up some 19%, which is some PLN 847/t if you look at the price. I can remind you that in Q4 of last year, the price of coke at FCA was PLN 713/t. We have a delta that's quite substantial. If we look at sales volume, we had 952 kt as opposed to 1 million.
If we look at the revenue in Q1 of last year, we can say that there's a small difference in the sales revenue. We can see that the coal price was down from PLN 468/t to some PLN 413/t at the end of the quarter. We're talking about the average prices. We do see a positive direction in coke and coal sales. Here we've got an increase of 18% from 1.5 million tons in Q1 of last year to 1.7 thousand tons in the first quarter of this year. If we look at steam coal, we have an increase to 838,000 tons in the first quarter of this year. If we look at EBITDA, we do see improvement. This is risk. In Q1, we have PLN 104 million. If we disregard non-recurring events, then we have PLN 113 million EBITDA.
Compared to Q4 of last year, well, we can see that we've improved the EBITDA by some PLN 350 million. If we disregard non-recurring events, well, the improvement is some PLN 270 million. The one-offs in the first quarter, what the group has, not very big one-offs. If we look at their impact on the financial results, were primarily the response to COVID. I have in mind quarantine isolation with the number of people who were sick. Also seconding employees to COVID hospitals, delegating employees to work in COVID hospitals. In the first quarter of this year. Well, that would be it in terms about EBITDA. If we talk about working capital, net working capital. It's fallen to PLN 396 million negative at the end of March of this year. This is some nearly PLN 400 million.
If you look at the balance of working capital, doesn't take into consideration our closed investment fund, because this is a long-term asset. Here we're showing short-term assets. The working capital would look better if we were to incorporate the closed investment fund vehicle in the overall capital. For net results, I'll repeat here that in Q1, we have a loss of PLN 179.2 million compared to a loss of nearly PLN 450 million in Q4 2020. If you look at the impact of the operating segments on EBITDA in Q1 of this year, we saw EBITDA improvement of some PLN 250 million, and this was in all of our operating segments. In the coal segment, we had a negative EBITDA in Q4. There's a difference of some PLN 250 million.
If we look at the coke segment, well, this is supporting the results of the group. The fact that this segment is in the group is positive and mitigates the negative price relations that we've seen on the market for coals. The EBITDA in Q1 was some PLN 240 million as opposed to PLN 70 million in Q4 of last year. The other segments. We see an improvement to some PLN 10 million. In the first quarter of this year, we had an EBITDA of PLN 85 million as opposed to PLN 48 million in Q4 of last year. As a result, the EBITDA net of one-offs, which were PLN 8.2 million, so it was PLN 104.4 million.
I can tell you, the company doesn't show regular receivables or payables. We don't have any non-performing receivables. Basically, all of our liabilities or payables are paid on an ongoing basis. If you look at the expenses by nature in the group, the level is PLN 2.3397 billion as opposed to PLN 2.4 billion in Q4. In three items, we can see depreciation, cost of labor. If we look at these three quarters, consumption materials, so we can see that there's stability, but the changes in costs in Q1 of this year compared to Q4 of last year, we can see this is primarily in external services in the first quarter of this year. This cost was around PLN 395 million as opposed to PLN 490 million in Q4 of last year.
This is a result of setting up a provision in Q4 for mining damages of PLN 60 million. We also had to lower renovation services costs down by some PLN 30 million. If we look at the costs of energy, we've seen an increase of some PLN 12 million. This is a result of higher electricity utilization, as well as the fact that as of January 1 of this year, we have the capacity payment. This capacity payment accounts for some 8% of the cost there, roughly PLN 8 million. That was the impact of the capacity payment. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. This is what the results of our company look like in Q1 of this year, and now I think we could go on to the Q&A session.
Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, I'll read out the first of seven questions that we have for Mr. Paweł Puchalski, who's from the Santander Brokerage House. What are the expectations of the Management Board in terms of the mining volume production in the mid and long term? Should we anticipate the 15 million tons running rate? Do you maintain the idea to move up to 17 million tons? Can mining problems lead to a lowering of the run rate in the medium and long term? I'd like to ask Mr. Tomasz Duda to respond.
Ladies and gentlemen, as has been said today, the company is striving to have the largest possible volume of coking coal. As a result, we're taking these actions in the short and medium term, we plan the mining output to be the same level of 15 million tons. In the long term, we will strive and endeavor to increase it. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much. The next question, does the company consider contracting to use the USA prices as opposed to the Australian prices as the basis? The difference is some PLN 40. Having in mind the very high costs of coking coal and steel.
I can respond. Perhaps this is one of 10 ideas. As you know, this market is destabilized. The differences and the upward spikes aren't economically justified, we have to avoid radical changes. The price movements we see today are coming from what's happening in Europe. We're observing that. We know these decisions are strategic and will have an impact.
Thank you very much. We have question number three. The volumes of production of coking coal in Mongolia, Mozambique, and Russia are having a very strong upward movement, and the rail line will be soon finished. Does that mean that the market will change very greatly, and this will lead to the long-term coking coal prices? I'd like to ask Wojciech Chojnacki to respond to this question. Thank you very much.
Ladies and gentlemen, if you look at the balance of what's going to happen with the production of coking coal production in China. Downward movement of some 60 million tons. The increases we assume, which are going to be around 60, 70 million tons. Basically, the total sum is roughly zero, the balance. This situation should not change much, having in mind the production of steel. Building a rail line, it will be completed in July or August of next year probably. The costs, I had the opportunity to visit the construction of those strip mines in Mongolia. The costs are very low. This is not a secret, around $20. That's the cost of production in the Mongolian strip mines, and the problems with transport. Having COVID in mind last year, well, car transport, vehicle transport, that's how that coal is transported to the Chinese market.
Almost 100% of it is transported that way. It was very difficult because the drivers had to be tested on the borders. This situation is changing very rapidly. The rail line, which will be completed, this will give you the ability to transport some 30 million tons. Trucks will be used for 24 million tons. It seems that the coking coal market should be stable. What's going to happen with prices? We'll find out later.
Okay, thank you very much. We have the next question. We're now observing very strong growth in steel prices. The same is true of external services. JSW needs a large amount of steel as well as external services. What's going to be the negative impact of these two factors on the results of the company? Since we'll see the full negative impact of these two factors compared to 2020. Is JSW trying to hedge its steel prices? I'd like to ask Jarosław Jędrysek to respond to this question.
Thank you very much for this question. I'll respond to the second portion of the question. In terms of hedging steel prices. If we're looking at the various types of steel slabs and rods, we're not contracting them. Metal sheets were not actually used. The products have a major impact in terms of steel. We're talking about the stands as well as the metal shields. There is no market on which you could hedge for those products, and we've not observed prices and change price movements in terms of our costs up until now, because the contracts have been signed for long-term periods.
We're talking about annual or two-year contracts, and these contracts are being performed on an ongoing basis. In Q1, we didn't see any sudden change in prices. We've not observed that. What's going to happen in the subsequent quarters is something we'll monitor. Our business partners haven't signaled us a need to change. Perhaps they're reducing their margins so as not to pass on costs growth. They're leaving their oil prices in place. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much. I'd like to ask for the next question. Thank you very much. We've heard about 10-year employment guarantees for employees in a situation in which the company is generating a loss. Is the guarantee for 30,000 employees or for 22,000 employees? Are you considering freezing of the bonuses as was the case in previous downturn phases?
Thank you for the question. Ladies and gentlemen. Today, employees are an investment and not a cost. That's the first thing that we have in our management policy. One of the first steps that this management board has made was to give our employees guarantees for a full 10-year period. We believe that this is a very important thing for them and that they fully deserve that. The situation that's in the question, do we intend to freeze bonuses? We don't want to do that at all because the market has changed. We're still in a market where the employees are at the top. We want our employees to feel safe, and we want them to work well here. Well, more than 22,000 employees have guarantees.
Based on my initiative, we've undertaken the topic to think about a new remuneration system, which would be pegged to EBITDA and would be on an annual basis. We started to do this discussion with the trade unions in early May. Our employees are an investment, and we esteem their skills, and they're the foundation for the growth and development of the company.
Thank you very much. The next question, JSW is emitting large amounts of methane, so it would cost the company more than PLN 1 billion a year to enter the EU system. Do you intend to work on it? I'd like to ask Mr. Duda to take this question.
We're aware that this problem exists, and we understand the challenge we face. We continue to take efforts to capture more methane in our mines. We're also enhancing the production capacity of the equipment we have, which convert methane into electricity. We've also launched conceptual work on capturing methane in the ventilation air, as well as utilizing it. JSW is taking these types of activities. All of the details on this subject are described on our website, and that's why I'd like to encourage you to review that information, which we place there on an ongoing basis.
Thank you very much. The final question sent in by Pawel. The previous management board talked about annual investments of PLN 2.4 billion, including leasing and building a new coking battery. Does this management board believe to be a reasonable level, having in mind that prices of steel have an impact on investment processes? Is it possible that JSW will reduce the amount of preparatory works?
The CapEx is PLN 2.59 billion, including the costs of filling longwalls. We've undertaken some savings, but we don't want to reduce this much because this is investment. This will generate the revenue in the future periods. We're going to continue following our investments at the declared level.
Thank you very much. Now we have a question from Robert Maj from IPOPEMA Securities. What's the general commercial situation, having in mind the conflict between Australia and China? How long will this clinch last? Can this be extended into next year? Is China able to withstand without the quantities coming from Australia using U.S., Mozambique, and other locations? What's the outlook for prices that the company will get compared to the benchmark? I'd like to ask Wojciech to take the floor.
Thank you very much. This question is demanding. I received this question many times last year when I was the CEO of the company. This case is political. All political issues, as we know, have their own rules. What I can say is that the conflict will be completed, will be ended in the near future. We're also aware that the political relationship between Australia and China is very complicated. As you know, at the beginning of May, the Australian government made a number of decisions, hostile decisions compared to possible investments in Australia. Also, if you look at the Darwin, Australia port, which was to be sold to a Chinese company, these cases are very complicated and are beyond our influence. We have no influence over that whatsoever, but we have to note that the situation could persist for a very long period of time.
I've said previously, even yesterday and today, the difference in the benchmarks, whether up some $10, this is a situation that's noticeable. If we look at the import of coking coal to China, well, China is the dominant producer of steel as well as coke, but also coking coal. The import is relatively small. Australia has one major benefit in terms of quality. The quality is very high and very stable. China has been able to survive without Australian coal. By having in mind such strong growth of demand for coking coal on the global market, all of the producers and the main ones are from Russia, Mongolia, also the United States, where they're looking at their own steel production markets. We can say that the supply is falling.
This is a big problem for China because they want to build and produce steel and the most sophisticated steel mills in the world. They need high-quality coke, and the quality of coke comes from the quality of coking coal. It would be hard for China to withstand this without having high-quality coking coal. This suggests, my personal hope, is that this conflict will dwindle, but we should note that this situation strongly affects the global markets. As we see in recent days, Colombia was a major player in the dispatching of coking coal. Well, China was buying coal from them through imports. We're following the situation. The analysis, the reports that are prepared for the management team talk about these issues.
The situation could be solved quite quickly, but it's equally possible that it could go on for many months to come. In terms of the rail line I already mentioned, the line should be completed in the summer of next year, and so we can set the ability to transport low-cost coking coal into China.
Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to mention one of the more important things in terms of salary. As of the 1st of July, our employees will have an increase in their salary of 3.4%. We do not intend to freeze salaries, and this is how we want to esteem our employees. We very much highly regard the work of our employees, and so this is one of the first decisions that we made.
Thank you very much. The next question coming from Jakub Szkopek from the mBank Brokerage House. Are your production plans still up to date for this year?
I can respond to this question. According to the business plan, it should be opened in December of this year.
Thank you very much. Next question. At present, what's the situation in terms of employees moving from the Jastrzębie mine to SRK? How many employees might take advantage of that, and what would be the implications for production and co sts in the short and medium term?
Right now, we're in the process of preparing that transfer. We're waiting for the lawmaker to confirm legal solutions, and at that point in time, we'll be able to do the computations and calculations in terms of the timing for that, and we'll give you information about that subject in our current reports.
We have a question from Tomasz Stępień from Argus Media. The first question, in terms of your coking coal production plans, what's the proportion between type 35 hard and semi-soft type 34? Is it technologically possible, assuming that this is economically viable, to increase the amount of type 35 coal? I'd like to ask Tomasz Duda to respond to that question.
Ladies and gentlemen, the company doesn't report the percentage of various types of coking coal in its mix. Type 35 hard represents a significant majority of the coking coal, and we always endeavor to increase the quantity of coking coal.
Thank you very much. We have another question. During the most recent conference, you mentioned that you had a very big spread between cheap coking coal and coke.
Is it sensible to increase the production of coke as opposed to selling coking coal to external buyers? Were you utilizing 100% of our production capacity in our coking plants? Thank you for the question.
Thank you very much. The next question. Last year, a large portion of your coke exports went to the Asian markets, China, India. What's the marine export looking like this year, having in mind the rebound of European demand?
As you recall, last year, the situation was exceptional. We did a lot of efforts to operate on the Far East markets, where they had to overcome the COVID difficulties quite quickly. We are in China, Vietnam, India under the basis of long-term contracts in our volumes of sales. The distance and the cost of freight, which has grown quite a bit recently, means that we're coming back to our traditional European market. This was a result of the exceptional situation because uncertain and major steel mills from Western Europe were ramping down their purchases of coking coal and coke. Now we're coming back to the normal markets of the EU, where it's easy to gain access, and as a result, the revenue we generate are the most beneficial to us.
We're making that reshift, and this was taking place in Q1, but we want to retain these markets, the far markets, distant markets, but in terms of the quantities which serve as a safety valve for us in subsequent periods.
Thank you very much. Will the growth of steam coal prices have an impact on JSW?
This is what's happening in the area. We do annual contracting, so all of the movement and fluctuation will have an impact in the subsequent contracting period.
Okay, thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen, for the questions that you've posed and for the opportunity to meet with you. I'd like to thank the entire management team. I'd also like to thank our teams, the directors of our mines, as well as all of our companies for this first quarter. Ladies and gentlemen, we continue to work. We're here at your disposal, and we have our investor relations department, which maintains contact with you. I'd like to thank you very much for your attendance today. Once again, thank you very much, and bye-bye.