Dzien dobry. Good morning. I am pleased to welcome you at the conference presenting the results of PKP CARGO for 2022. I would like to welcome those present in the room and those who are following us online. My name is Agnieszka Bareja, and I'm responsible for investor relations at PKP CARGO. Mr. President, the floor is yours. Thank you very much. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I would like to give a warm welcome to all of you journalists, our shareholders, those who follow us online and those who accompany us at another meeting at which we are going to discuss our results, our work.
First of all, I would like to give a warm welcome to our employees, the directors who are here with us, and employees who all do the hard work in our plants, on railways and in the offices. I would like to welcome them cordially because what we are going to discuss today is not only the work of us as the Management Board, but above all, we are going to discuss the work of the entire team of our company. I would also like to thank all companies that are part of our Group and that contributed to the results we are going to present today. I would like to welcome my colleagues from the Management Board, with whom I have the pleasure and honor to work on a daily basis, much to my joy.
In a moment, I will tell you more about this joy because it's going to be somewhat on a personal note. Financial Director, Maciej Jankiewicz. Director of Operations, Marek Olkiewicz. Director of Commercial Affairs, Jacek Rutkowski. Director of Employees, Trade Union and Social Affairs. We have great honor to make this presentation to you today, especially so, given that it is the 10th anniversary of our debut on the stock exchange. The shareholders have extended the trust to us for 10 years. Last time I told you that Cargo was the future, and I will repeat it. I believe that Cargo is the future, and I would like you to trust us and accompany us in the future. Why so? Well, let me tell you.
Net profit for 2022 amounted to PLN 148 million in the group. Revenues from sales increased by 26% compared with 2021. Result on operations, EBITDA at PLN 1.66 billion and profitability at 26%. Capital expenditures, PLN 776 million, with operating costs higher by 12% year-on-year. That is lower than the increase in inflation. I start with those figures because I want to argue my request to you to trust us. These are the arguments that we put forward to you today. We are also fully aware of the fact that it is not excessive optimism. We are meeting at a place that is iconic, so important for the whole business in Poland, because we are fully aware of the challenges we are facing.
Today, we are proud, also celebrating this 10th anniversary of our IPO. We can announce our very positive result in spite of unfavorable conditions, of which we will tell you more later. We are very well aware of the great responsibility ahead of the government of the Ministry of State Assets with which we cooperate on a daily basis, but also ahead of PKP Group with Krzysztof Mamiński at the head of it. This entire puzzle is responsible for our successes. From this place, we would also like to extend our thanks to our colleagues from Polish Railways, from energy groups with whom we worked hard throughout the winter, accomplishing tasks entrusted to us by the government.
This is very important not only in the context of our work at PKP CARGO. Our close cooperation with friends and colleagues from other companies, other groups, helped Poland go smoothly through the winter season. We will discuss all those things in detail, but I would like to give you this broad overview as a justification why we are proud standing here in front of you today. Also, we are fully aware of the challenges ahead of us. We know that the situation is difficult in all Europe. There are difficulties in business markets on the Silk Route. The difficulties will continue. Cargo is the future. That is why with this team of all of our group, we will continue to work towards the future that we want to achieve together.
I will take my seat at the table. We'll show you my part of the presentation, and then we will proceed to a Q&A session. I would like to thank you very much for being with us and for trusting us. The articles, the reviews that are published about us as a group, about what we do are also very important for what we do and for the directions which we choose to follow. We take into account carefully what you write because it is also an indication for us as to which direction are worth taking in the future. You know that our responsibility is also for the future of 20,000 people in the group, but also it is a responsibility for their families.
We are a single team, a unified team, and we want to tell you more about this team. Ladies and gentlemen, as I have already mentioned, my task and the task of my colleagues here will be to present to the results achieved by PKP CARGO last year, both operationally and financially. We will outline our strategic plans for the upcoming year. It would be hard to discuss our results without reference to what happened in Poland and in Europe and in the world in 2022. As you well know, a lot happened. At the end of the pandemic, war in Ukraine broke out. The disruption of supply chains raised the questions of energy security. We faced the dynamically growing prices of gas and all that wobbled the previous balance of power on the market.
This situation forced the partial change of our offer and the processes which we carry out. We had to show flexibility and agility in order to meet those challenges. The challenges were all the more difficult because this management board was appointed exactly a year ago. We had in fact nine months to act and to turn around the company, restore the profitability of the group, generate a positive financial result, as we declared to you and to our employees right at the beginning of our tenure. All the more so, I'm proud to present to you our very good financial and operational results. PLN 100.8 million net profit. Revenue from sales increased by 26% from 2021. EBITDA, PLN 1,066 million. Profitability at 20%.
Capital expenditure, PLN 776 million, increased 12% year-on-year. Ladies and gentlemen, achieving such good results would have been possible without a comprehensive approach to improvement and development of the company in all key areas, trade, operations, finance and HR. I would reverse this order. HR, finances, operations and trade. Humans are the most important everywhere, and I will keep repeating this. We expanded our offer, adding additional services, expanding our transport capacity after the development of the terminal in Karsznice. We also took action to increase the quality of customer service. Client is of paramount importance to us, so client is at the very heart of our activities. For operations, it was a year of permanent changes. We responded flexibly to changing demand.
We optimized the work of our teams with all this coal-related activity, reversal of transportation routes, the directions from the previous south to north to the recent north to south. We looked closely at the revenue side, but also at the cost side in the context of cash flows. As one of our largest employers in Poland, we take utmost care of our employees. With reference to this cost side effort, I would like to mention the financial institutions that supported us and that cooperate with us with which we are looking for synergies. I extend my thanks to the banks and to those who cooperate with us.
Importantly, in the context of our care of employees, we managed to increase salaries and we put an end to a collective dispute with trade unions. Thanks to our huge effort, we succeeded in overcoming this crisis. We know that there is still a long way ahead of us in terms of employee relations, but we declare openness to cooperation and openness to a dialogue with social partners, which I think is going in a desirable direction for both the company and employees. We agree that four pillars support our good results. We have more realistic rates for transportation, which translated into greater revenues. As PKP CARGO, we developed cooperation with seven countries, which you can see enumerated on the slide. I should especially mention Ukraine.
We know that we have also the visit of Ukrainian president in Poland, with all those expanding packs at the border crossings. I would like to mention one thing. I'm extremely proud of the fact that we as a team, as employees, as management board, are fighting the regime.
Acting to against the effects of the war, we support Ukrainian fight by our transportation efforts. As a citizen, I'm proud of this effort of our cooperation in giving liberty to other nations. Ladies and gentlemen, we played an important role in securing energy security of the country. We accomplished coal contracts. We completed those contracts, winter ports, ships, terminals, local governments, you know, that's a huge effort. I would like to extend my thanks to the governmental partners. We all helped one another, and we were able, thanks to this concerted effort, overcome this difficult situation. We entered into an agreement with our team, as a result of which we were able to accomplish our tasks successfully thanks to our team, our crew.
In spite of certain difficulties, this cooperation was based on trust and on what is in the best interest of the company and for the team. The privilege of being the CEO of the company gives me the opportunity to invite my colleagues one after another. We know each other. We are good colleagues. Let me start with Marek Olkiewicz, who's responsible for operations, which is an important part of our business. I don't want to take credit for anyone. Commerce, finance, it's all important, but operations is our core business, and this is something that really determines our performance today and in the future. Our VP really wanted to share his success, the success of his team, the management, but also the workforce.
He's a man of a great experience in the railway business. He's been fighting for the railway industry for many years, and he knows what he's talking about, and he knows to whom he's sending the message. To us, he's a great asset, and knowing that we have him on board, we each of us may take care of other areas in our company. What is important in his area is also people because the decisions that he makes at the end of the day always impact our workforce. Marek, if I may, let me invite you first to speak. Again, very cordial welcome. Let me continue the story of PKP CARGO. When we look at the freight breakdown, we can tell that overall the freight turnover has been up.
We see that the freight volume is stable. To give you more details, in 2022, the freight turnover accounted for over 27 billion ton kilometers, which means that we were up by 5.5% compared to the previous year. Altogether, we were able to carry over 100 million goods, tons of goods. In terms of total tonnage, this is similar for the previous year. Let me highlight the fact that we were operating under extremely difficult conditions. We had an embargo coming in in April that was followed by the decision on the ban on coal. Perhaps not everyone knows what the ban on coal means. That was the decision of the government, of the prime minister that was...
that banned the coal from Russia. As a result, it really redirected our business. I understand that many of you may understand this mental shortcut, but I think that we should really explain that the ban on coal affected the power sector, but also ourselves in the logistic sector since we had to sort of redirect our freight business. Yes. As Dariusz said earlier, the entire logistics and all the operations under normal business circumstances would actually take us from the Silesia, from the south of Poland to our destinations or from the east of Poland elsewhere within Poland.
As a result of the ban on the imports of coal from Russia, and as a result of the geopolitical developments that we faced in the area, actually redirected our business and our main routes were actually ending up in the seaports and then return freight. What really impacted our business and capacity was prices of fuel and prices of electricity. As the entire market, in 2022, we experienced the increase in the power prices and in the prices of the traction fuel. In our case, the costs were up by 39%, and this is year-to-year. To some extent, this increase in pricing was related to the delivered freight. When we recalculated on the one ton kilometer, the overall increase of price of fuel and electricity was 31%.
When we speak about electricity alone and we look at megawatt hours, the price of this unit was 67%. In our case, the increase of the megawatt hour was 62%. At the end of 2022, we signed a new contract for electricity supply since the old contract was about to expire. As a result of the new contract, our current settlements for electricity are based on the contract prices that are on the power exchange. Which means that we have the realistic sort of 1-to-1 reflection of the electricity price and on the cost, to the cost of our electricity, and that will be later on translated in the rates that we charge for the freight.
In 2022, the increase in electricity prices was actually not a major blow to us because our contract that was signed back in 2020 expired at the end of 2022. We suffered because of the price increase, but it was not such a big price increase compared to other companies or other businesses. Consequently, the costs of operations were up and as I explained earlier, the main cost drivers were electricity and fuel, traction fuel. Since we actually had a higher volume of the freight, we were able to to have a higher rates for the access. Well, we were charged the higher rates for the access to infrastructure. In simple words, we paid more for the use of rail tracks. To put it short, the more freight, the higher cost for railway.
The, the more volume, the more tonnage, the higher cost of access to railway infrastructure. The situation has been fairly stable in the market, so we don't have such an acute bumps. On top of it, we learned how to live with all these difficulties, especially with the embargo, because embargo was the most cost creating impact of the last year. If I may jump in, I think that this is, well, this is a good example of our flexibility and agility because last year we promised to you and we made the same promise to our workforce that we will be swift with the decision to respond to the evolving situations. Having so many employees on board, sometimes our response to actual impact is, takes longer.
Now we really took it as a top priority to be very swift with the decision-making process to respond to the evolving market circumstances because compared to the smaller operators, to the smaller companies that are operating in our industry, we understood that it was our drawback, that the decision-making process took too long. Now we were able to actually curtail that decision-making time. This is a great strength and advantage that we are seeing right now and we want to keep it for good. The next thing which is really critical for operations is Capex. We need to invest. When the times are volatile and uncertain, it's hard to really to make investments ourself just like majority of other operators wanted to be very reasonable about our Capex.
In 2022, we were trying to either curb certain investments or put them on hold. The decisions to curb or to put on hold our Capex was always done after thoughtful consideration so we may continue to carry out our business and that it's not affected. In our rolling stock we have 1,500 car engines. We have 53,000 of cars, which means that we do have a lot to upgrade, modernize, and to spend our Capex on. Last year we spent over PLN 776 million on new investment and 82% of that amount was spent on repair and maintenance of our rolling stock and also upgrades.
Let me highlight the fact that we were completing the long-term contracts for the new rolling stocks. Last year, we closed a major contract for 1,116 platforms with the co-financing. This year we are about to close other contracts for the purchase of locomotives or engines. All the time we were trying to make sure that we will optimize our Capex, and we prepare our investment spending in such a way that the company may well sustain its business. The final slide for me to cover is also important aspect of our operations in PKP CARGO, and namely this is the hard coal or the transport or solid fuels overall, but with a particular emphasis on coal.
In 2022, we were able to sustain the tonnage of coal freight at the same level as in 2021. However, again, I want you to recognize the fact that the c-market situation or overall business environment was far from being conducive. We felt the pain of embargo and ban on the imports of coal from Russia that really affected our freight business. Nevertheless, PKP CARGO was able to deliver the targets. We were able to deliver the freight volumes. In terms of the hard coal, I believe that this year we will continue this process, we will also deliver the targets. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, as Marek Olkiewicz said, very unconducive market situation, uncomfortable conditions in the on the market. This is like the true test.
When can you prove yourself if not during the tough times? Let's be honest about it. you know, we actually started to manage this business with the legacy of the previous board members. We had to revise certain Capex decisions. Some of them were good enough to continue. I'm really open about it. It's not that, you know, we are able to figure it out it all and we are able to fix everything overnight. No, it's not the case. you know, we had to change certain things, but we were also taking advantage of decisions that were made by the previous board members. We are also open to say that they may claim credit for certain achievements of the company.
As Marek said, uncomfortable market environment. This is, to us, really a test whether we are able to live up to the challenge, if we are able to turn the company around. Operating under the stressful market environment, this is a true test to all of us to what extent we can live up to this challenge, as managers and as a overall workforce of the company. As I said, at some point in the future, we should have a stable financial anchor. Going from that, we can carry on with our marketing and investment efforts, but we do need this financial anchor that will be holding us steady and what would help us keep our credibility to the financial sector that is working with us. After this short introduction, let me turn the floor over to Mr. Rutkowski.
I think that it makes sense to speak good to say good things about people. You know how it goes in Poland. People often find it easier to say bad things about others. My colleague is a really decent man. He's been with Cargo Group for many years. Last year he put a lot of effort. He's at work almost all the time. He's either on the road or he's working with his people. This is his contribution also made a difference in the company. I think that he can share his success story, and I'm sure that he will also share some problems that he had to embrace. He may have a different point of view. Myself, I just distribute the responsibilities and tasks to deliver.
My colleagues have to actually cope on their own. Sometimes I don't really know the details. Over to you. Thank you.
I'm pleased to make this presentation. I also appreciate CEO's recognition of the importance of the commercial part. As Mr. Olkiewicz talked about, our transport of coal and problems as well as successes involved in this, overall, we succeeded in completing the tasks entrusted to us. It was not easy operationally, but we managed to succeed. It also meant a complex operation. Commercially, we managed to deal with it. The transport from Polish ports across the country, as well as modernization works. Let me interrupt you for a moment, if I may. Please notice one thing. The fact that we were to come to the port, upload, transport, and download, that's one thing.
Often, we also faced complaints that we waited for something or other. Later, we managed to solve those tensions and frictions, but our ports also faced difficulties. They had to increase the capacity. This element of cooperation with ports was extremely important so that we could help each other in the market. Yes, of course. We had to learn how to operate in this new situation. More goods came to the ports than left compared with the previous years. We succeeded. Of course, coal continues to be the key segment of transport. Of course, revenues continue to be the greatest from coal transportation, and probably this won't change this year. Well, certainly it will not change this year.
Our second most important segment, and in fact it is the future of our company, is transportation of construction materials. This type of Cargo constitutes a great share of our transportation. There was an increase in the mass transported. We had a few % increase in efficiency here. We're also trying to get rid of some backlog from 2021. At the end of the validity of restrictions that were first introduced during the pandemic, the construction companies resumed the work. The demand from those construction companies resuming the work gave some impetus to transportation work.
There was also an increase in demand for specific materials in our neighboring countries, in Germany and in the Czech Republic. We had more transport to carry in view of greater orders. It didn't work smoothly throughout the year. The dynamics slowed down at the end of the year, but that was related to the problems caused by the war. The Cargo that we supplied to smelters were not fully completed because of the war in Ukraine and logistical problems, as well as uncertainty as to the future fate of the economy. As for our strategic transport intermodal, the entire industry declined a bit. The Silk Route slowed down its transportation efforts because of the war.
Also, we felt for two or Q3 of last year, we felt the effect of pandemic restrictions in China. The production was lower, so fewer products reached their destinations. Fewer companies made orders in China. The Silk Route until today has not regained its pre-war levels of transportation or even pre-pandemic levels. 2019 marked the peak of transport in along the Silk Route. We are still feeling the repercussions of that. Transportation to Polish ports is increasing, and this is a source of joy for us because Polish ports became a major commercial point. We believe that traffic going through a Polish port will increase.
Coal transport placed additional burden on ports because harbors had to give priority to coal transportation. We see an increase in container transportation and specifically transportation of agricultural crops in containers from Ukraine. That looked quite nicely last year and this year. Grain 1.5 million tons. We had an increase over 1 million tons. If Jacek allows me, I would like to comment on this topic of Ukrainian grain because it is a politically hot topic. It is also important to our agricultures, our farmers. Our service normally consists in carrying this to ports. Cargo did play a role here. This is the role which we always have. That is we upload the goods at point A, and we download it, offload it at point B.
We are not linked to clients or recipients in any way. We carried grain mainly to Germany and to the ports. We carry goods wherever the client wishes us to go. Of course, it is always best to carry the entire train of the same goods. Over 90% of transportation was grain. We are regularly in touch with the Ministry of Agriculture on this point, also providing full data on the subject. It is also about transportation of Polish grain for exports. We are ready to support this effort, and we will be the main operator in this regard. The fourth product group that I would like to present as our fourth most important area of activity is transportation of metals and metal ores.
Here, war had an impact on steel production and on transportation of steel. We used to be a major carrier of steel, from Russia, and Ukraine. We're also a major carrier of ores to Polish and Czech plants. As a result of the war, major perturbations occurred in the production of ores in the east, meaning Ukraine. As regards transportation from Russia, that is subject to embargo, so there is no transport. The same goes for Belarus. As a result, we felt a decrease in our share of this type of transportation by over 5% points. We continue to be the leader.
We continue to be the first choice of clients, but the size, the volume of this activity decreased mainly because of the lower volumes of ores transported in general. The change of directions for transport also meant that Polish ports had to play a new role because imports of metal ores via the ports increased to replace the Ukrainian ore. As a result, we have a surplus in other type of activity. That is transportation work that was on average 15 kilometers longer on each relation with additional revenues from this. We supplied Polish and Czech smelters as regard ore transportation.
I'm happy because our southern neighbor is increasingly aware of the ability of the Polish port to supply them with all raw materials that are necessary for whatever type of industrial output. Thanks to PKP CARGO INTERNATIONAL, based in the Czech Republic, we are able to gain a strong foothold in this market. We will continue this effort. We are working very hard here also with PKP CARGO INTERNATIONAL, with the Slovak and Hungarian market as well as the Three Seas area in our model service. I would like to thank the employees for the work they do for the benefit of the entire group. Well, I can be unhappy about them winning with us in a football match, but well, we can live with that. We appreciate your work.
invaluable. But what we do in the south is extremely important. Thank you very much. As regards details, you can find them all in our report. So if you want to get more specific figures for specific types of activity, you will find it all there. You can also raise any questions during this conference. Thank you. Thank you. I know that you would be happy to make an announcement, but you know, CEOs like to talk. May I introduce the next speaker? I would like to present Zenon Kozendra, whom I have already mentioned at our previous meetings.
Long-standing member of the management board, who on a daily basis works with the most sensitive part of our company, that is with people, and whatever concerns people, their problems, their dreams. Yeah, dreams is the apt word here. We are a company that wants to make the dreams of our team a reality. The painstaking work of Zenon with the entire HR team, with the people who work with all our staff across the country. It is an extremely sensitive part of operations of our company. There's human element which affects all of us on a daily basis very much. I would like to thank Zenon and his team for their work, for getting us through the remuneration rises. Otherwise we wouldn't have managed.
Without the symbiosis with the team, with people, you're not really able to carry on the business, and it's hard really to look into the future. I always say that Cargo is all about future. With Zenon and his team, we are able to be more forward-looking. Over to you.
Thank you, and thank you for the kind words. I appreciate the opportunity to cast more light on our employment in the group. As my colleague said, PKP CARGO is about millions of tons of freight and thousands of train cars and engines. PKP CARGO is also about people, and I'm speaking about thousands of our employees who have high competence and unique skills. These people work in logistics. They work in the repair workshops to repair all the cars and engines. There is also some thousands of people, highly qualified staff members who are direct responsible for actually the freight, so the train drivers, and everyone else who's on the road all the time. They are working for our success and for your success, for our customers and for our shareholders.
As a PKP CARGO Group, we want to be a responsible employer who's running a safe business for the customers and also who is providing safe working conditions and development opportunities to our staff members. We want to make sure that their employment is stable. We have a number of development programs that are offered to our people. We work with a number of schools and training providers. We do have our own classes within the schools. We provide scholarships to students. We start the recruitment early amongst the young people. Let me jump in. We are really investing in the young people. I think that we should emphasize that we are investing in them and that's a tangible financial investment.
We train our people in the really unique professions that are not available on the market. At this point we are during a training of several hundreds of train drivers and train setters and also specialists who have to be trained for several years to be able to reach the sufficient level of competence. We have to take care of it if we want to be an efficient Cargo and freight operator. We know that people are our greatest assets, therefore we are all about the partnership and social dialogue that we promote within the PKP CARGO. Although sometimes we do have disputes, last year we did have a collective dispute with trade unions, but nevertheless we are able to bring it to the end.
We are able to sit at the table and negotiate terms and conditions that make everyone at the win-win position, the customers, the company, and the employees. As PKP CARGO, we are also mindful of the sustainable development. We want to make sure that we are responsible, socially responsible. We are also mindful of the environment. We operate according to the high environmental standards. I think that there is no need to say that rail freight is much more friendly to the environment than the road freight. The gas emission is 10 times lower in case of the railway transport. Let me also highlight some projects.
In addition to the flagship product, projects like the company that likes running or a parent at work, let me mention three other things. The psychological support that is offered after the accident, so if our employees were engaged or witnessed a accident or are in the situation that may affect the safety of the transportation, we provide to them post-accident psychological support. We do have specialized psychologists that are available to them on an anonymous basis. They may just call the number, and they may ask for support. We are also working on the program to build the safe workplace.
We believe that it is vital to comply with the regulations, but it's even more important to be mindful of your own safety at work, because once the employees are safe, everyone is safe, including the Cargo and the overall traffic on the rail tracks. This is measured. Last year, our accident rate was 10% reduced compared to 2021. The main KPI is that our health and safety use, like accident, rates or severity of accidents. All those ratios were down by 10%, give and take. Now, let me also mention another program that we launched last year, and this is called WIN. We decided to join the government campaign. This is the campaign which is really carried out by the National Health Fund.
The main thing is about prevention and early detection of the most frequent cancers. The program is for both men and women, and we encourage our people to take advantage of this program. We do take efforts to raise the awareness, both in terms of health and safety, but also in terms of overall health of our employees. We really encourage our staff members to pursue the life/work balance. This is all in a nutshell. Once again, let me emphasize the fact that the entire management board believes that our workforce is definitely the most important asset.
I've been part of the management board since 2016, and I'm truly happy that I have a pleasure and the honor to work with this board that has high social sensitivity on their agenda and fully subscribes to the idea that business is done by people for people. Thank you. Well, thank you, and I appreciate your words. I think this is important that you really emphasize the fact that we do have such an approach to our workforce. What our colleague said about health and safety, let me reiterate that. I'm sure that you realize that this is hundreds of thousands of operations on the railway tracks every month, and therefore, we are very safety-minded.
We want to make sure that no one suffers and no one would lose their health as a result of these operations. Now let me move into to core part of the company that is within the jurisdiction of Mr. Jankiewicz and his team. I have to say that many times we have discussions. We may have different opinions, but all these discussions within our directorate are with the benefit for the company because we want to come up with the solutions that would help us navigate the future. Mrs. Dushainska and Mr. Rosiak and Mr. Sikora are our directors who are working with our board member, Mr. Jankiewicz , and he will share more details. After that, we will be able to take more detailed questions. Right now, we will have the main highlights.
Later on, we are available for one-on-one questions. Each of us is available to you because we are really very much interested in speaking about the future of the company. Over to Mr. Jankiewicz.
Thank you. Last year, PKP CARGO Group had PLN 5.11 billion of costs. For such a large organization, costs are a major challenge, especially that we need to remember what was the baseline for 2022 and what were the circumstances throughout the year. First, when we had to plan for the year and then when we had to revise our plans and to adjust to the changes that occurred along the way. To me, it is important that we were able to curb our costs, and the costs were up, by 12%.
Today, I think that this is the reason to be proud on this jubilee date. This is our anniversary, during the past year, we had the highest growth of EBITDA on a year-to-year basis historically. When we look at the units, it is even more visible. 6% was up on one ton kilometers, and the revenue were up by 20%. That's a tremendous strength and advantage. There were a number of factors that contributed to that, but I think that overall it took a lot of tenacity and consistency at all levels of the organization to keep the costs at bay. We are truly satisfied with what we achieved.
There were moments in time when there were announcements of price increases, we've seen that the costs were shooting up, it was really hard to handle that. We had to go through some difficult negotiations, but at the end of the day, we may claim success. Please take a look at the in-overall salary. 7.2, it's year-to-year basis, but at the unit level, it's 1.6 for 1,000 ton kilometers. That really proves that we were able to keep it at the reasonable level. 113% was the increase of EBITDA on a per employee basis. Again, this is yet another strength that we acquired. That contributed to the sound performance, but it partially it was also driven by optimized headcount and employment.
The next slide shows cash flow and the structure of our financing. PLN 181 million cash, in addition to that, we also have fairly stable financing, PLN 560 million open credit and lease lines, so this is an important piece of information. We were able to reduce debt by PLN 192 million zloty. This is a substantial reduction. Short-term debt was increased, we were able to manage that very efficiently. Now let me move to cash flow. The positive cash flow, PLN 1 billion zlotys, roughly. This is the gross result, PLN 192 million, and the depreciation is PLN 733 million zlotys. Now, the negative cash flow, this is with the investing.
This is due to the maintenance and sustaining our rolling stock because rolling stock gives us advantage in the market, a competitive advantage. It's both about the cars and the train engine. We had to disinvest a non-performing and idle stock, rolling stock, that generated PLN 76 million. The negative cash flow on financial activities, this is the payment of our loans, PLN 554 million, and PLN 141 million of the new loans that were taken on. We were able to get a grant, which was PLN 96 million year zlotys. Let me take a look at the profitability ratio. After a few years, we were able to be in the positive territory, and I think that the dynamics is worth mentioning.
From quarter -to -quarter, we or from half year to half year, we were able to meet and and we were looking forward to such performance. We continue to monitor that and to enhance that. Today, our ratios are eventually positive, so we may say that the management board, the overall workforce and everyone in the group contributed to this achievement. We were able to get rid of that COVID legacy that really impacted adversely the company and the financial results. Thank you. I think that speaking of the financial performance, we may say that that was a end result that was also claimed by other companies, PKP CARGO SERVICE, PKP CARGO Terminale, and Madam Adam Jarzak.
International, I mentioned earlier, but I'm just saying that we are one team. PKP CARGO is also Mr. Słomka. All of us are on board. I just wanted to mention the other companies of the group and the people that are there and the managements and the CEOs because they contributed substantially to the overall success of the group and the success of the entire holding of PKP Group CARGO.
With which we work very closely. Hat bow to the work of PKP CARGO. We have also excellent cooperation with the supervisory board. We learn a lot from each other. We have a supervisory board that is close to the issues that are relevant to the company, and that's really what matters. The future. Ladies and gentlemen, as you well know. That is the area within the responsibilities of the CEO. I have the pleasure of presenting to you Tomasz Mostowski, Director of Strategy, who is with us today. He has vast experience, and we succeeded in persuading him that it was worth moving from our holding company to PKP CARGO because here the dynamic of events was greater. We set higher challenges, and we are going to keep you on your toes.
In accordance with our revised strategy for 2019-2023, we uphold our ambition to be number one in Three Seas area and along the Silk Road. We want to play an important role in the broadly understood European Union in terms of transport, work and the mass carried. In spite of the difficult geopolitical circumstances, we want to consolidate our position. We will optimize sales, improve customer service, and optimize transport processes. We will digitize our operations. That is something very important given the exclusive type of our activity related to our efforts for the broadly understood freedom in Europe. We experience cyber attacks.
In cooperation with the security services of the state, we are coping with those attacks, fending them off, and that is really important. There are always those who might want to harm us because of our vital role in the broadly understood security of the state. We will align our services with market requirements, whatever that might mean. Here I would make a question: Is Ukraine an opportunity or threat for CARGO? Will we be able to take advantage of this opportunity? I think this disaster for Ukraine will provide an opportunity for CARGO. We are monitoring the situation very closely, and we want to play the role of the company with a huge involvement in business terms in the reconstruction of Ukraine.
We will want to continue our transport work to help Ukraine. Financial fstability allows us to have those dreams and to take action that allows us to focus on the north-south transportation corridor. We have agreements with nine countries as a group. You can see the enumeration of those countries on the slide. We operate very actively in the Three Seas area. Here we want to play the leading role. We are ahead of a series of meetings for new directions. That's new piece of information that I'm revealing to you now. These are also the goals that we set for ourselves. The tasks that we set and the future that we are pursuing will be possible thanks to the continued investments.
We had 12 locomotives that allow us smooth switch of the power supply system at the moment of crossing the border. We work on the terminals in Zduńska Wola Karsznice that should increase the throughput capacity of our transport routes. I will not disclose to you more ideas that we have on this, but once we are closer to putting them into practice, I will present the details to you. Since the beginning of the year, we've been working very intensely on the strategy of the international logistics group within PKP CARGO. We will want to present this international logistics strategy to you once it is ready.
We emphasize ESG issues, and I would like to ask Director Bareja to say a few words about ESG activities because that is the work of her team and her department. Could you tell us more? If you can bear with us a few more minutes, could you just very briefly talk us through this topic? Thank you very much, Mr. President. As you have just said, for the first time, PKP CARGO published a sustainable development report for 2022. That is a new form of activity to us. We would like to invite you to read this report that we are planning to publish in June 2023. We will inform you of more details once we know the exact publication date.
As our CEO has mentioned, we are preparing and developing an ESG strategy which will integrate it with our business strategy within PKP CARGO Group. Thank you very much. Ladies and gentlemen, once again, please let me extend my thanks to the entire team for the results, to the management board, to all the managers, all those who contributed to the results that we have presented today, and to celebrate the tenth anniversary of our IPO. That's a great honor to me, and that's very important to me as well. I would also like to send a broader message to the public. You can always rely to us. The situation which we went through last winter, the situation concerning energy, situation in general, makes me able to feel proud day.
I would also like to send a message to the Ukrainian society, which is, the Ukrainian public that is fighting the enemy. You can rely on us. I think together we will be able to get freedom in Europe. We as PKP CARGO Group will contribute a little bit to this in the broader map of freedom in Europe. That is of paramount importance. Sometimes we underappreciate this, but we live in a free country and the Cargo is the future. Thank you very much for being with us today here in person and online. We are at your disposal. Now we will close the official meeting, but feel free to ask us any questions. We believe that there are no wrong questions.
To the best of our knowledge, we are willing to answer all your questions. Thank you once again for your trust, for being with us. It is a sign to us that you are watching closely what we are doing. You are close to us, and we are building our mutual trust together. Thank you very much. Cargo is the future.
Thank you very much, Mr. President.