Poland’s Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa (JSW), the EU’s largest producer of coking coal, has revised its forecast for 2026, lowering its expected coal production volume due to delays at one of its key mines. This was reported by Bankier.pl.
The expected total coal production this year will be approximately 13.3 million tons. In November of last year, this estimate stood at approximately 13.5 million tons.
The update to JSW’s 2026 target is linked to a downward revision of the production forecast for KWK Pniówek due to a delay in the launch of the N9 longwall. The delay is due to a methane and rock outburst that occurred during drilling last December, as well as a collective accident, following which operations were suspended pending analyses by specialized units and the approval of new safety measures. As a result of the incident, the launch of Longwall No. 9 was postponed from May to November of this year.
As a reminder, JSW ended 2025 nearly on target. During the period, 13.01 million tons of coal (97.3% of the plan) and 3.15 million tons of coking coal (100.8% of the plan) were produced. Sales reached 96.7% and 100.2% of annual targets.
The year was marked by downward pressure on prices, increased steel imports from Asia, and competition from cheap coking coal from outside the EU, as well as issues at the Budryk and Borynia-Zofiówka mines and an accident at the mechanical processing plant in Budryk. Despite the challenging market and operating environment, JSW maintained a stable production position and planned to restore full production capacity by 2026.