Jastrzebska Spólka Weglowa S.A. (WSE:JSW)
Poland flag Poland · Delayed Price · Currency is PLN
37.63
-1.17 (-3.02%)
Sep 18, 2026, 5:04 PM CET
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Earnings Call: Q1 2026

May 20, 2026

Summary

Q1 2026 saw improved net loss and EBITDA versus prior periods, driven by cost reductions and restructuring, despite lower sales revenue and ongoing market volatility. Liquidity remains a concern, with significant restructuring and state support underway to stabilize operations.

Bogusław Oleksy
Acting CEO, Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I'd like to welcome you to the Earnings Conference for Q1 2026. My name is Bogusław Oleksy, I'm the acting CEO. I'm joined today by Jolanta Gruszka, vice president, and Adam Rozmus, vice president. If you allow me, we'll go ahead and give you a quick walkthrough of our group and what's happened in Q1 of this year. If we look at our figures, what we've achieved in Q1 versus Q4 2025, coal production is down by around 7%. In terms of coke production, it's down by more than 11%. Our sales revenue is down quarter-on-quarter by 12%. It's slightly above PLN 2 billion in sales revenue. Our net result in Q1 is a loss of PLN 616 million. In comparison to Q4, this is a major swing or change, because in Q4 2025, the net result was negative at more than PLN 3.3 billion.

If we look at EBITDA net of non-recurring events, it was PLN 192 million with a negative sign, so it was minus, compared to the previous quarter when it was nearly PLN 300 million in the red. This is an improvement. If we look at the average price of coking coal and coke in the most recent quarterly period, we see that the average price of coking coal has grown by more than 9%. If we look at coke, the price has grown by more than 4%. Our capital expenditures in turn in this period came in at PLN 803 million versus PLN 680 million in Q4, which is an incremental growth of 18%. What is our major objective here? We're talking about our mining cash cost.

The MCC has fallen compared to Q4 by nearly 9%, and it came in at PLN 631 as opposed to PLN 692 in Q4. This continues to be our major objective. That is to meet the expectations of the market by reducing our costs. I want to show you one more graph that illustrates what we've done over the course of the last year, if we compare Q1 2026 to Q1 2025, and not just to Q4 2025. We can see that our coal production is up by 13%, coke production is up by 7%, sales revenue is down by 12%. The net result has improved. It's still in the red at PLN 616 million, but a year ago we were at PLN 1.3 billion in the red. If you look at EBITDA, we also saw improvement.

We were in the red at PLN 552 million last year in Q1 2025. This is of course negative EBITDA, we've improved that to, let's say, PLN 192 million, which is also a negative figure. The average price of coking coal and coke have moved down by 3.2% if we talk about coking coal, more than 12% if we look at coke. Our CapEx, capital expenditures, we're at a pretty similar level. It's PLN 803 million in Q1, as I mentioned previously, as opposed to PLN 826 million in Q1 2025. If we look at the mining cash costs, this is what, as I said previously, is the most important thing, this most important metric. The cost here has fallen by more than 24% from PLN 836 per ton in Q1 2025 to PLN 631 at present, so in Q1 2026.

We can say the movement here is very desirable, and this is exactly what we had in mind to move that mining cash cost down. Some three weeks ago, at the annual earnings conference, we presented our restructuring efforts. Restructuring is a process. It's not something that transpires quickly. It needs some time to be implemented. Let me remind you of the areas which are the most important in the framework of our restructuring efforts. It's the support of the State Treasury, then our relationships with trade unions, and our relationships with financial institutions. Let me begin with the State Treasury. In this short period of time since the annual earnings conference, one important thing has transpired. The law has been enacted on the system of developing institutions, which will allow us to think about obtaining support from the Industrial Development Agency, ARP.

Now we're working on obtaining a loan from the Industrial Development Agency, ARP. We should be able to utilize this instrument to obtain that support. We've advised you some time now that the Mining Functioning Law applies to us, is applicable to us, and here we want to utilize all of the instruments afforded by this law. It gives us the opportunity to reduce our mining cash costs and to restructure the headcount. Essentially to downsize, and we're working at present on closing the deal with ARP when it comes to the sale of shares in the PBSz company and JZR company, so the renovation company. This process is underway. As I mentioned previously, a couple of weeks ago, we're also in the process of obtaining a deferral and installment payment of ZUS contributions here at JSW SA, the mother company, and JSW Koks.

If we look at some of the issues related to the trade unions and staff, what's very important here, let me mention, nothing major has happened since the most recent conference, but we have limitation of labor costs and limitation of employment guarantees. If we're talking about the bank institutions, this process is very dynamic. We're working together with them hand in hand on the remedial program, the remedy program, in order to put together a new financing package, and this process should be wrapped up by August 31st of the current year. All of this work takes time. It's a lengthy process. Our commitment and engagement are required, and the company is working very intensely on these subjects, because restructuring is a type of panacea for what's happening on the coking coal and coke market, and also having in mind too our cost position.

That would be it in terms of my prefatory comments, and I'd like to ask Adam Rozmus now to say a few words about our operating activities.

Adam Rozmus
VP of the Management Board for Technical, Operational, and Development matters, Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa

Ladies and gentlemen, coal production in Q1 of this year topped 3.2 million tons compared to Q4 of last year. This is a decline of 7%, but if we look at the corresponding period of last year, we've increased coal production by more than 13%. What's important here is that we're continuing to increase the percentage of coking coal in our mix, and so you can see we've been able to reduce the quantum of steam coal by 90,000 tons. We're focusing on coking coal. If we look at the corridor works, they're pretty much flat. In Q1 of this year, it's 16.9 km, so 16,900 meters.

Very similar to what we did last year in Q4 as well as in Q1. What should be emphasized is that we have a change in the proportions. We're limiting the quantum of work done by external companies. It's 1,200 meters lower in Q1 2026, we're using our own staff to a greater extent, and that's an increase of roughly 1,000 meters. The number of active longwalls, this is not something that has a direct impact on output. We have more than 30 longwalls located in different places, depending on how the deposit lays in the ground, we have somewhere between 19 and 23 longwalls that are active. We were working on setting up some longwalls. If we talk about coke production, this is in parallel with extraction. I'll go ahead and give the floor now to Jolanta Gruszka, who's in charge of sales.

Jolanta Gruszka
VP of the Management Board for Sales, Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa

As a matter of our tradition, we'll talk about market trends and what's happened in our sales. Let's begin with looking at steel production in Q1 of this year. In the EU, we had the CBAM tax implemented, and this is one of the protective mechanisms to protect the European steel market. In Q1, we can say that CBAM didn't produce any effects, so the production of steel was more or less flat. It was down from the previous year. It did affect prices, and so steel prices for flat goods was up by 10%, and for rods, it was up by more than 3%. If we look at global steel production, it's up in Q1 over the previous quarter by nearly 7%.

With respect to Q1 of the previous year, it was down by 2.3%. If we look what's happening in the Middle East, this led to greater uncertainty and greater unpredictability or lack of predictability. We have this CBAM implementation in the EU, and as of July, there should be a more rigorous system for, let's say, collaterals being put in place, and this means that we should have some conservative optimism, and the EU countries are counting on some greater protection for the market, as I said at the previous conference. We see this being fleshed out or being borne out by firing up blast furnaces which have been down for a while. We can say that what's happening in the Middle East could have an impact on the steel market.

Higher interest rates could mean that there's less usage of steel in the automotive industry, the construction industry, and there can be some disruptions in supply. We can say that 10% of aluminum production comes from the Middle East and also chemicals and plastics. If we think about coking coal, we saw quite a bit of volatility in Q1. In January, there were the disruptions in Australia, and the supply led to some changes there. There were fears about mining damages and rail infrastructure, harbor infrastructure, and as a result of supply restrictions. Australian Premium Low Vol prices moved up above $250 per ton at the end of January. American indices in the same period grew by a much smaller percentage.

After the cyclone came to an end, there was an expectation that production would be up, and the logistics barriers had a time-limited period. Prices fell for coking coal once those disruptions were overcome. At the end of March, the price was down to around $220 per ton. Another factor affecting this market was the outbreak of war in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz. The knock-on impact was smaller here than in gas prices. Freight rates were up. Diesel fuel was more expensive, and that affects extraction costs, especially in strip mines. Steel prices moved up, especially in March. Premium Low-Vol were at $234 in Q1. We saw quarter increase of prices by 70% for Premium Low-Vol, and Semi-soft prices were up by nearly 15% compared to the previous year.

It was up by 26% for Semi-soft. It was up by 24%. Another area on this market, this is the coke market. In Q1 of this year, we saw that there was an oversupply or glut because of more Indonesian exports of coke. We talked about at the previous conference, and we also saw that demand was falling. According to Gillespie reports, in Q1 Indonesia exported 2.5 million tons of coke, which is an increase of 89% over the corresponding period of the previous year. If we look at the global coke market, we also saw changes in how the Indonesian market is being protected. There were import quotas in place last year. They have anti-dumping tariffs, and so Poland is not the object of these measures. Coal noted on the international costs are much higher than the Polish costs.

In comparison, these $48 a tonne, which at the same time we have a decrease in demand for coke on the Chinese internal market, The Chinese coke became the most expensive product on the market. The relationship of Chinese coke notings relative to that, to coke oven blast furnace coke in China, as opposed to the Premium Low-Vol, which is very important for coking plants. In the first quarter, it was at a record low level, it was 0.82 to 101. On the average for the quarter was 0.92 in terms of that ratio. We can say that what was happening on the Chinese coke market was totally different. Quarter-on-quarter, it fell by 2.4%. That was the price for blast furnace coke as opposed to the previous year. It was 2.5%.

We also see greater differences in terms of coke price movements between Europe and Asia. According to McCloskey, the blast furnace coke price for imported was up by more than 14%, whereas last year it was 6.6% growth. On the next slide, we'll show you the ratio of JSW product prices to the market prices. If we look at the various ratios that affect our prices and what happened in the first quarter of 2026 versus Q4, we can say there's a difference of a little less than 15%. We're talking about the benchmark price, and it's from October 2025 to February 2026. You have the July-November window for 2025. If we're talking about external buyers in the benchmark period, it fell from 97%- 93%. That's the price of JSW coking coal in relation to Premium Low-Vol prices.

The coking coal price had a different, a varying impact on individual months because of FX rate volatility and what was happening with production. If we look at coke in Q1, we can say the increase was a little less than 7%, but the average for the relation of these prices to blast furnace coke was roughly 105%. That was the relationship between our coke prices and the coke prices in ARA ports. If we look at steam coal price from quarter on quarter it fell, and it fell by 4.2%. With respect to Q1 of last year, it is down by 14.7%. With respect to our benchmark that we use, which is the PSCMI, it fell from 90%- 86%, that's the ratio. On the next slide, we talk about the sales of coal produced in the JSW Group.

Our revenue on the sale of coal to external customers, it was PLN 1.16 billion, and it was down by 10.6% versus Q4. This was driven by a lower volume of sales. We also saw the price of this coal falling at the same time. We can say with respect to Q4, we had a price increase of 9.2% with a similar level of sales of coal to internal customers. We also wanted to optimize our inventories. The inventories or the steam coal moved down by 11.3%. If we look at the summary of sales of coke produced in the JSW group. We had PLN 713 million, this was down by 23% compared to the previous quarter. That was because we had sales volume down by 15%, while the average coke sales price was up by 4.2%.

The final slide that I want to present to you pertains to inventories of coal produced in the group. We saw coke inventory falling by 5.5%, while our coal inventory was up by nearly 28%. Steam coal inventories haven't changed. We have roughly 80,000 tonnes, very low. If you look at the coking coal inventory, we have a higher planned production. Contracting for Q1 was done based on production forecast prepared at the end of the year. Extraction was up above the forecast, especially in Q3. There's a lot of volatility in Q4 in the market. You had the cyclone in Australia, the prices moved up, and then there was a rapid correction. At the same time, American coal grades had a stable price level.

In the same period or at the end of this period, we had the outbreak of war in Iran. This led to greater uncertainty. That meant that there was quite a bit of measured response and conservatism by the buyers. They were downplaying their purchases.

Adam Rozmus
VP of the Management Board for Technical, Operational, and Development matters, Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa

Let's go on to the investments within the JSW Group. I'll begin by talking about our CapEx in the group on a cash basis. I'll compare Q1 2026 to Q4 2025. In Q1 2025, we see that the CapEx is down. Down by 35%. This is because we're reducing CapEx as a result of optimizing the operations within our group. Let's drill down into the results. I'll compare Q1 to Q4. We can say there was an increase of 18% within the coal segment. This was a result of preparing new longwalls.

In Q1 of this year, we had to purchase two longwall shearers and we have the mechanized shields. Our CapEx was up for that. To purchase transportation equipment as well and the shields, while at the same time we were spending less on the mining machines, and this is because we were optimizing some of our contracts. If we look at the CapEx, we had some decline, for example, in construction and then the wash plants as well as expansible mining pits under IFRS 16. We can say that within the coke group, JSW Koks, in Q1, it was down by PLN 18.3 million versus Q4, so that's roughly 1%. In terms of continued investments, we're modernizing coking battery number four at the Przeworsk Coking Plant and also in Radlin we're working on the energy block.

With respect to the other group companies, we have a major decline in JSW, in the IT company, in PBSz. There was only one increase of PLN 5.7 million for JSW Logistics. Thank you very much. I'll go ahead and give the floor back to the CEO, Bogusław Oleksy.

Bogusław Oleksy
Acting CEO, Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa

Now I'd like to present briefly our financial highlights with respect to the major fundamental parameters, and I'll talk about the contributing factors. If we look at sales revenue, Q1 revenue is down by more than 12% versus Q4. If we talk about EBITDA net of non-recurring events, showing it on an adjusted basis, last quarter we had -PLN 299 million. What is it at in Q1 of this year? It's still negative, but it's lower at PLN 192 million.

We do observe a positive trend, a positive change, but we're not in the black at a level that we consider to be desirable. If we look at net working capital, unfortunately, it's still fairly negative at a pretty substantial level, PLN 4.8 billion, and this is an element linked to liquidity management. The net result in turn in Q4 was in the red at more than PLN 3.3 billion. In Q1, we were able to reduce that negative figure to PLN 616 million. Now, if we look at the bridge, what were the major driving drivers? We had the impact exerted by coking coal price change, and then also what happened with coke. The biggest positive impact was exerted by the movement in coking coal prices. This improved our sales revenue by PLN 87 million.

If we look at the negative drivers, we can say that steam coal sales volume led to revenue falling by more than PLN 200 million, and then the impact exerted by the coke sales volume was also negative at nearly PLN 122 million. Here, one should note there was a positive impact exerted by the movement in coke prices. As a result, the drop in revenue in Q1 versus Q4. While these factors led to this specific volume or this amount of sales revenue, of course, on one side we have revenue, on the other side we have expenses by nature. Here we see our costs were reduced by nearly 15%. The biggest drivers here, there are three major line items. I'll talk about them in just a moment. What were the major contributors? This is what I mentioned at the beginning of our presentation today.

This is one of our major goals. This is something that we need to monitor, we need to react to what's happening on the marketplace, both when it comes to coking coal and coke. If we look at the cost change drivers, we can say we were able to reduce costs through restricting consumption of materials, and we're optimizing. This is what Mr. Rozmus has been doing, and this has generated a positive impact. We also have some optimization in terms of external price services. So we had consumption as well as materials, and so external services were down by nearly PLN 124 million. As Mr. Rozmus mentioned, this is an avenue that we will continue to follow, a direction we will continue to move in. This is another important element of our cost path.

The third very major cost change driver, while the arrangement or agreement we've entered into with the staff trade unions means we've been able to reduce employee benefits in Q1 by PLN 241 million. These costs can be shown jointly through the mining cash cost metric. We've been able to drive down the MCC substantially by nearly nine percentage points. This is our major target, how we're reacting to the market situation. We don't have much to say or much impact over the revenue side of things. We have to react to what's happening on the marketplace. We had some MCC of nearly 693 in Q4. We've been able to slash that to 631. That's something that's noticeable. Costs contribute to that production. Volume has a minor impact. In fact, it actually raised that a little bit.

If we look at the cash conversion cost in coke production, if we look at the difference between Q4 of last year and Q1 of this year, we were able to slash that by more than 28%. Our cash conversion cost is down substantially. We moved down from 380 PLN per ton, more or less, to 274 PLN per ton of coke. In just a moment, I'll show you the major drivers of this cost reduction. We have to understand which elements are leading to that. If we look at the unit mining cash cost, if we think about how we've been able to reduce that mining cash cost, it was external services, energy consumption, and employee benefits. That's what helped us in terms of expenses by nature.

There are also taxes and fees, and the volume portion of the equation actually increased the mining cash cost by PLN 54. As a result, we came out with this PLN 631 at the end of Q1 or in Q1. That's the cost per ton. If we look at the cash conversion cost in turn, we moved from PLN 383 in the previous quarter, Q4, to PLN 274. How did we achieve that? We reduced the consumption of materials. This is net, of course, of the coal feedstock. There are also certain fees reduced. The emissions and then external services, this is a trend in our operations as we restructure. We want to do as much as possible, as many operations as we can do with our in-house staff, and we're utilizing external service providers to a lesser extent.

If we think then about the EBITDA, these are the non-financial impairment losses and these impairments are affecting the results as well as the EBITDA performance. We also have the impact of the cost by nature. This is where we're able to achieve certain improvements. We've been able to reduce costs elsewhere, but these are some of the most important ones, and these three line items made the greatest impact. If we look at the volume and sales of coal, this reduced the impact of coal sales volume and price, reduced EBITDA by PLN 136 million. In coke, that impact was PLN 93 million, so it reduced by PLN 93 million. If we look at the individual segments and how they affected our EBITDA, in the coal segment and the coke segment, we had the biggest change due to impairments.

What usually happens, we have some one-offs in the quarter. They were pretty small, roughly PLN 46 million only. That meant that our EBITDA net of non-recurring events was negative at PLN 192 million. If we look at net working capital, this is something the company has been grappling with for many months. This is working capital and cash. Unfortunately, here, the level of working capital, net working capital, including the closed-end investment fund, were negative here at a very unsatisfactory level. This is a level that we absolutely must improve. We have liquidity. This is what you see in our current reports and what the media is reporting. This is the major, let's say, pain point for the management team, and this is something that we're working on very intensively.

Cash balance at the end of the year and the end of the quarter. At the end of the year and in Q4 was nearly PLN 800 million. At the end of March, it's at PLN 234 million. This is something, this cash balance has fallen quite substantially, and that's why we're doing restructuring efforts that we talked about in the first part of the presentation. The fact that we're availing ourselves of a number of different instruments, and that's why this is a top priority for us. We have, of course, the instruments available under the Mining Functioning Act. The non-recurring cash severance payments and for employees in the wash plants or coal preparation plants, as well as the underground miners. This is very important because thanks to that, the company's going to be able to reduce its costs by shedding employment.

The second part is the support given to the restructuring efforts we're running. These processes are lengthy in nature. The short-term results have been discounted, but the long-term impacts of restructuring headcount, of putting our operations together at a certain run rate and the organizational changes we're making in JSW, the company itself, as well as across the group. We need some support and to do that, and that's why we're thinking about that loan from the Industrial Development Agency, ARP, and that's why we're working on that at this time to have that support for this process. I think this is the same sort of summary of everything the three of us have tried to convey to you today. You've got all the other information in the financial statements we've published.

We'd like to thank you for your attention in terms of being able to present to you the major elements. We believe that quarter-on-quarter, we're going to be able to show you better and better results, announce better and better results. As a result, I would propose now that we move on to our Q&A session.

Speaker 4

There are questions that were posed. Let's go ahead and field those questions. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. I'll go ahead, read the questions that have come into the company. By how many kilometers is the plan for corridor works understated in 2026 compared to the needs of the company, which wants to produce 13.5 million tons of coal? To what extent will this reduce your costs in 2026 in PLN million?

Adam Rozmus
VP of the Management Board for Technical, Operational, and Development matters, Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa

The planned run rate or production quantum in 2026 is 13.3 million tons. When we talk about optimizing the corridor works plan to be done, to do that, we had to verify the periods of tunneling, and we wanted to push back to a later time some of this work. However, the fundamental criterion here is to ensure that we have longwalls where we can mine. We don't want to consume our own galleries. We have to do preparatory works. We have the preparatory plan. We have to do these corridor works, we're within the band of good mining practice. I would say that limiting the corridor works this year will not affect our run rate.

Speaker 4

Thank you very much. Is the PLN 2 billion CapEx for the mining segment sufficient to maintain a production volume of 13.5 million tons per annum? If not, to what extent is it understated versus the annual investment needs?

Adam Rozmus
VP of the Management Board for Technical, Operational, and Development matters, Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa

Once again, the limited CapEx has been thought through at a cogent level. We're pushing back some of the investments, we're making these time shifts. This will not lead to a curtailment in terms of our run rate. We sustain our plan for production this year at 13.3 million tons.

Speaker 4

Thank you. What is the management team's idea of what you're going to do with JSW Koks? Do you want to spin it off or sell it to the Industrial Development Agency, or would you do restructuring within the JSW Group?

Bogusław Oleksy
Acting CEO, Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa

If you allow me, I'd like to say a few words about that subject. For many months, the management team has been working on a variety of scenarios in terms of how JSW Koks is going to operate. The results generated by this segment are not satisfactory.

What's worse, because of the market situation, we don't see fundamental changes on the revenue side of this segment. These scenarios call for us to optimize costs of this entity, of this segment. Let me put it that way. We're eyeballing these scenarios on a long-term basis. Having in mind what's happening on the marketplace, this is what Jolanta Gruszka, Vice President of Sales, said. The market is somehow destabilized in this segment of our business. When I say destabilized, I mean there's a lot of volatility there. It's hard to predict what's going to happen, so we have to be very deliberate in terms of defining what this segment should produce, what results it should perform, and also having in mind technological changes in the steel milling industry.

What's critical here for us is to maintain a certain level of operational stability, and we want to maximize the value for the overall group. We're considering a variety of options. We haven't made final decisions on them. The question includes a scenario or proposal to spin something off or selling it to ARP. It seems to me that the option to sell is not being considered by us as opposed to other methods of operation in JSW Koks. I think at this point in time, this is what I can say about the coking segment.

Speaker 4

Thank you very much. The next question: Does the management board believe that the current cost side initiatives, where the state treasury is paying for 4,200 people to leave the company, will be sufficient for the group to generate cash in 2028 when the two-year agreement or memorandum of understanding comes to an end with the trade unions? If not, what additional savings initiatives will be taken by the group, and what level of savings should we expect on top of the savings that you receive from this agreement with the trade unions and the agreement with the state treasury?

Bogusław Oleksy
Acting CEO, Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa

Let me continue my response here. When we think about the cost side, as I've mentioned, this is our major challenge, having in mind what's happening on the marketplace. Here, we're going to have to optimize the cost side of our operations.

The cost side initiatives, do they only pertain to the Act on the Functioning of the Mining Sector? Well, that's not the totality of our efforts. From the context of this question, it suggests that the state treasury is paying only JSW for this attrition. Well, it's applicable to the entire mining sector. JSW is only one of the beneficiaries, so we want to tap into these opportunities. We assume that within the framework of the current year, our savings should exceed PLN 400 million. In the latter half of the question, there's a question about other savings initiatives that could enhance the cost side. As I previously said when we talked about the results themselves, these initiatives have been launched already. They're linked to slashing the costs of external services, the operation of mines.

That's why we've signaled certain projects to centralize functions in two areas. This is something that's happening. It's underway. It's in progress. These processes are strictly linked to our employees and our staff. These aren't things that happen overnight. As I said, the work is in progress, and as a result, we should be successful. That's what our analysis suggests, in any case. Today, I cannot say that we've exhausted the list of initiatives. We continue to look for all possible savings in order to be able to reckon with the marketplace and function well.

Speaker 4

Thank you. Does the management board expect that non-recurring cash severance payments and mining leaves will begin in May of 2026, or do you think this will be delayed by a month? From which month will our OpEx incorporate the savings from the attrition of 4,200 employees?

Bogusław Oleksy
Acting CEO, Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa

Let me continue here since I started discussing this subject. What we're assuming, that this process will commence in May. The impact or the knock-on effects of this process will start to show up in May. If we think about the full-blown impact, as we have broken this down into two stages, well, the knock-on impacts will be disclosed gradually as people take these mining leaves. The company is well-prepared to run this process, contrary to what some people may think or what it seems to be the case. There are a number of preparatory activities that have been prepared in terms of accommodating mining leaves. Those persons who want to utilize these mining leaves, we have to check them. We have to vet them in terms of safety. We're talking about thousands of people in JSW and other mining groups, mining companies.

We'll kick that process off in May, and then gradually or steadily, we will turn over or provide cash severance payments to these people, as well as offer them the mining leave.

Speaker 4

The next question concerns a similar subject. How many employees thus far have elected to utilize these safety net instruments? Can you present, as a company, the schedule for changes in headcount for the upcoming years to have a reduction of 4,248 people by 2031?

Bogusław Oleksy
Acting CEO, Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa

We have submitted an application to the Ministry of Energy, and this application pertains to that number of employees, 4,248 people. If you're asking about the number of applications, well, I can say that the company is receiving them day to day. One of the testers for this process, well, we did some initial research.

We tried to poll to find out what would be the acceptance of the employees. That was just a test. Now we're preparing the documents for the mining leave, as well as the cash severance payments. When we talk about a specific schedule, at present, we have two rounds that are planned for employee attrition. We should also be aware of the fact that some employees will want to utilize mining leaves. In terms of our mining efficiency and certainty, and above all, and I want to highlight this subject, and Adam Rozmus has highlighted this, safety as a pillar is very important for us. We'll have to filter through that list of people who will file these applications. We want to make sure that this will not exert a negative impact, adverse impact on our ability to operate.

The work, especially when we talk about mining leave, well, this work is underway. In the near future, we should have some pretty precise schedules defined in terms of how these persons will be furloughed. As I said previously, our assumption is that this year, the all-in impact should be around PLN 460 million. What's important here is to run this process in a streamlined fashion without undue delay, because every additional month would represent money we can save.

Speaker 4

The number of people, let's say roughly 4,300 employees, does this apply only to JSW or the whole group? If it applies to the whole group, how many people will be in the individual big companies, JSW S.A., JSW Koks, and JSW SIG?

Bogusław Oleksy
Acting CEO, Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa

Well, that number, that quantum, comes directly from the Act on the Functioning of the Mining Sector. That law speaks or names the entities that can utilize those instruments. It's not possible under this law for employees of other companies to participate. The sole beneficiary of these instruments were the employees and the company. It's only the employees of JSW S.A. that can participate, can benefit from that law. The expectation that employees of other companies could participate is not based in law. It's unwarranted because the law doesn't allow or doesn't permit that to take place.

Speaker 4

Thank you very much. This year's run rate is 13.3 million tons. Does the company sustain its midterm plan of 14 million in 2027, 14.5 million tons of coal in 2028, 2029, roughly 15 million tons starting in 2030? Do you sustain this approach?

Adam Rozmus
VP of the Management Board for Technical, Operational, and Development matters, Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa

At the previous conference, when we summed up 2025, we talked about the need to update our strategic goal, strategic document, strategy document. We started the work to update our goals for the overall group. One of the big elements is the restructuring program. That's something that's being done. The restructuring program, based on what Bogusław Oleksy talked about, we have this attrition or downsizing. We need to be able to estimate the possible run rate over the upcoming years. Thank you very much.

Bogusław Oleksy
Acting CEO, Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa

Thank you very much. That's it. If there are no other questions, once again, I would like to thank you very cordially for your participation and attendance, and we'll see you and hear from you during the next conference. Thank you very much.