Jastrzebska Spolka Weglowa SA
WSE:JSW
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Good afternoon. We'd like to welcome you to the conference, during which we're going to present the results. I'd like to welcome everybody. I'd like to cordially welcome you to the conference during which we're going to be able to show you the results that the JSW Group has generated in Q1 2022.
So we have very good results, robust results. Nevertheless, this presentation in terms of its timing overlaps with the tragedy we've experienced. This tragedy occurred in the Pniówek mine as well as in the Zofiówka mine. So at Pniówek, so we had a longwall, that's been operated for several months, and we had basically an explosion of methane. The rescue campaign was taking place in very difficult conditions, the rescue operation. And so basically, we weren't able to achieve the intended objectives. And so basically, we had to seal off the entire region.
A few days later, on the Zofiówka mine, we've had a shock tremor, high energy shock wave. And it seemed that the prophylactics that we've been doing would make it possible to overcome that hazard. But as a result of that tremor, the shock wave, and basically, we had a -- it was over 900 meter. And we had an atmosphere without any oxygen. And as a result of these very dramatic events, some 26 employees died.
I'm not talking about the people who've suffered major injuries, especially during the first catastrophe where we had burns, and those employees are still being treated in the hospital in Siemianowice. So I would not like to prejudge the conclusions about who is responsible. Let's not do that. We have special committees -- commissions that have been set up, and these commissions should -- these committees -- commissions should determine the causes of these events, and explicating this will provide greater comfort to all of the people working in our industry. This is a huge drama, not only for the families, but above all -- it's a family tragedy, but it's for all of the members of the mining brotherhood.
So the events that I've mentioned just a moment ago mean that we're not able to celebrate or be satisfied by what we've achieved, and the results are outstanding. And they were not only driven by prices, but also by work organization. And basically, they were driven by the actions we've taken in a variety of areas. Today, the results will be presented by the management team. We have Robert Ostrowski, who is responsible for finance, then we have Sebastian Bartos, who's responsible for market sales. And then we have Edward Pazdziorko responsible for investments. We don't have Mr. Wojtkow with us today. He's representing us at other meetings, and so he's received an endorsement from the employees, and he's been appointed for another term of [ service ].
And my name is Tomasz Cudny. And so as a result of the Supervisory Board decision, we've been appointed for another term of office. And so now I'd like to go on to the presentation of the results at this time.
As I mentioned, our results, both of the company and as well as the group, were very good, were very outstanding. And this is the production of coal, and this is where we start with the value chain. And so the production is higher than in Q4. So we always refer to the previous quarter. And so we're up by 5.4% in terms of production. So we produced 3.76 million tons of coal. Of that, coking coal represented 2.8 million tons. This is our flagship product.
And then we have the red triangle, which is 1.9% reduction in coke production. This is not the result of bad work or various occurrences, basically we did 100% of the work. The 875,000 tons, this is exactly what we had assumed. This was lower than in Q4 2021 because of organizational reasons. We're doing modernization work in some of the -- we're doing renovations in some of the coking batteries. And so the people responsible for doing that renovation -- basically, we decided what the technical capabilities were and this is what we've been able to achieve.
And if we look at the corridor works, we've done nearly 10% more. And I'll continue to reiterate this that our mine at Collier that does corridor works has a forward-looking -- has a future because this is the future of the mine. So the 18 kilometers -- more than 18 kilometers of corridor works that we've done, give us the opportunity, give us a picture of what we'd like to do on an investment footing.
The next rectangle that shows what we've done. This is sales. Sales is higher than production. So the sales department, will be able to expound on this a little bit later. When it presents the results, we want to sell down as much from the coal storage yard, and we want to do this in a rational fashion to ensure that we want to have sellable goods at good quality parameters.
And so we had very good sales revenue at PLN 4.9 billion. And the average price supported us. Basically, it's the merits, it's the contribution of all of the people who work here. Basically, the work done by everybody has led to a situation in which we were able to sell our products at very good prices. As the prices rose, so it was up some 26%. And so this is what enabled us to achieve this result. And so we have a net result of PLN 1.85 billion. That's the net financial result. And so this net financial result is higher than in Q4, which was a very good quarter for us by more than 80%.
Economists look at EBITDA, and we have nearly PLN 2.6 billion. So this is up 40% over Q4 2021. And so the details -- or the specifics of these numbers will be discussed by the various members of the management team responsible for their segments.
And so I'd like to give the floor to my colleague, Edward Pazdziorko.
So good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, if we look at coal production and coal production in the group. In terms of coal, we extracted -- we had 7 sections. Well, basically, we can say each section is like a separate mine. And then in our coking plants, we were producing coke and perhaps certain results will be reiterated and repeated, but we'll get to the detailed information specifics as we walk through these numbers. So in Q1, we produced a total of 3.76 million tons of coal.
If we look at the split, basically, the mix. And so we had 2.86 million tons of coking coal, so more than 76% share. If we look at steam coal, it was a little bit more than 906,000 tons. So the total production that we -- and the plans we had, so we're up 26% of our annual plan. And so if we look at the quarter comparison between Q1 and Q4. So we saw an increase in production by more than 5%.
If we look at the specific numbers, so it's 194,000 tons more. The steam coal, so it's nearly 86,000 and more than 108,000 in terms of coking coal. Generally speaking, we can say work organization in all of our mines, and we'd like to thank the employees as well as the crew managers because these are the results of everybody.
And if we look at generally -- achieving the plan above. We're doing more than the plan. We had Szczyglowice, Knurów and Borynia. The other mines, basically, we can say, achieved their targets for the individual months and for the entire quarter. If we look at Q1 2022 against Q1 2021, we had an increase of nearly 11%. So this is roughly 370,000 tons more of coal production. And so we were excavating coal on a number of longwalls.
So we had roughly 24.6 longwalls. So we opened up 5 new longwalls after closing down 11. And so we can say that all of our longwall shares -- so if we compare this over Q4, we can say that we're up 1.2%. So we can say that as longwalls were completed -- or completed their operation that we opened up new longwalls. And that means that we were able to commence operations on new longwalls.
If we look at corridor works, so we did some 18,379 meters. So it's more than 23% of the annual target. It's 16,700 meters is coking coal. And so we have 1,600 meters done by external companies. So we did most of this with the internal resources, HR. So if we can pay this -- if we compare this to Q4, we can say that in Q1, we did more corridor works. So we're up by some 9.8%. And we did a lot of this work with our own employees, and external companies did less. And some of the work has been done. And that's why this difference was planned. So we have roughly 190 meters fewer.
If we compare this to Q1 '21, so we were down by some 20%. That doesn't mean that we had bad organization. But this was a result of the number of wall faces that we completed the work in a number of longwalls. And as we set up new longwalls, we have 78 wall faces that were up and running in Q1.
So if we look at the intensity factor of how much work we're doing. So we had exactly a result of 4.9 intensity for preparing new longwalls. And as we go on to coke production. So we have 3 coking plants, Radlin, Przyjazn and Jadwiga. And so the Jadwiga coking plant utilized more than of it's 100% of its production capacity. The average for the 3 coking plants was more than 96%. So we produced 897,000 tons of coal compared to Q4. So we're down by roughly 2%.
So this was not the result of bad organization or any sort of deficits. Basically, this was a result of certain renovations and upkeep work -- maintenance work that was being done. And if we compare that to Q1, we can say that the production is down by a little bit less than 5%. So that's more or less it in terms of the initial information about the production of coal and coke.
So thank you very much. So now a few words about the market situation where we are as a company, as a producer of raw materials for the strategic raw material for steel production. So in the recent period in the last year, 1.5 years, while this period has shown us how volatile the environment is, an environment in which we operate, at previous results conferences, we've talked about the situations linked to COVID.
Then we talked about the geopolitical situation where we didn't have any impact over that. And so the economic war between Australia and China, the trade war. And then we have the military conflict, the armed conflict in the Ukraine. And there's a lot of discussions about energy independence and energy security of Europe.
And all of this is linked to the steel sector plus our coking coal, which is an indispensable factor in energy transition, and the means of production in terms of everything that could go missing, having in mind the overall market environment, this shows you how volatile the environment is in which we operate and how rapidly the company has to react and why it has to track the current situation.
On a measurable basis, this means for the company, we're, on one hand, confronted by sometimes a lack of deliveries because of prices being around $100, and now we have prices in the next period that were up to $500, $600. And then we're able to sell everything, and we're able to sell off our coal storage yards. And we have the other risks that we talk about that are in various interviews or publications that we issue because the current price level and the macro and OpEx at present also have some inherent risks for our company.
And this is the situation in which we have to function and operate, not only on a quarter-to-quarter basis, but we have to have a vision about what we're going to do up until the end of this year and all the way up through the end of the strategy period that we've defined.
If we look at the current things, what we're comparing at the results conference, so steel production in the European market. And of course, on the global market, it's pretty stable, relatively stable. If we look at these ratios, we can see a couple of things. So we have 2% growth at the global level. So from 447.7 million tons to 456.6 million tons. In Europe, it's a little bit different. We have a decline of 1.6% from 37.4 million to 36.8 million tons.
So there's 1 conclusion one can draw from that. And we'll see that in the price quotations on the European market that Europe at this point in time is producing nearly at 100%. So the capabilities we have are basically exhausted. In terms of the steel businesses, we're working with these steel mill, we are working 100%, and that's why we have a slight downward adjustment because of the saturation of the market prices, plus having in mind the cost of energy carriers.
If we look at the non-European world, there is some growth potential, and that's why we have a slightly different trend. But if we look at the global figures, we can say that we have a stabilization at a very high level of utilization of capacity. And this also reflects the price levels on the European market. And so we have $1,130 to $1,200. These are record-breaking levels, and these price levels have maintained -- have been sustained from Q4 to Q1. And so this is a growth of more than 6%.
And if we look at long goods for the construction industry for the -- so we have an increase of more than 14% from $909 -- so basically, $910 to more than $1,041. So this shows you how high the market is. And the market continues to perpetuate at that level. And that means that there is some margin potential for steel mills and the ability to consume the raw materials needed for that, and there's still some room there, but we have to say that these values are unencountered in our group or in the steel world.
If I remember, for the last 20 years working in this group. We've never seen such figures, and they will have certain consequences for the future at present, as we report the results for Q1 2022, we can certainly say that this is very favorable for our company. And we build our position on that basis. And we can say we want to utilize this to the maximum degree possible, having in mind our clients.
If we look at the spot prices of coking coal and coke, so we can say that we need more and more this raw material because of the geopolitical position, the ability, the logistics, the ability to import it and to do processing. So having an integrated coking coal plant -- sorry, coking plant, means we can utilize our coking coal in-house, and this gives us the ability -- well, the alternative sources. And so this is not only from the East, which has been blocked entirely, but there are other factors which contribute to this growth.
Basically, we have growth in spot prices from $368 to $487 for TSI Premium Hard. That's an increase of more than 32%. And then we have for semi-soft an increase of prices of nearly 51% up to $354. Basically, we can say the semi-soft was usually coming from Ukraine and Russia. And we can say that there's a shortage of semi-soft coal grades. And they're used to PCI technology. This is used in blast furnace technology as an injection methodology.
Well, it's not economically viable to use approach. So the only thing that can be done, the only alternative is to use more expensive grades and then certainly looking for other replacement products substitutes. And that's why there's cost pressure. So if you look at the differences between Q1 and Q4, we can say that this is not a good benchmark.
You remember that we have some of our volume that's based on contracts prior to the quarter, then we have a price model where we have a shift where we used the previous quarter. And a part of the volume is quoted utilizing the Nippon Steel method. So we have 2 months of the current quarter and 1 month of the previous quarter.
And to set the price in total, we can say these 3 models of pricing and negotiations, basically would have a 5-month window, which is sort of our benchmark, is our reference point. And if we look at that point of reference, we have an increase of some 26%. In absolute figures, if we were to recalculate that. So this is $311 to $390 in order to make it clear for you, what is the difference between the reference model with respect to the quarters -- calendar quarters that we usually present to you?
So if you look at coking prices, for several quarters now, we've seen record high coke prices. You've seen the results of JSW Group for 2020 and the financial result we had, which was built to a large extent on the coke business -- coke segment. So they were [ high praises ]. And so the difference between coke prices and coking coal was very big. But now the difference is much smaller, but the differences between quarters are much smaller.
So the difference is of 1%, or in some cases below 1%. If we look at the coke -- blast furnace coke, prices in Europe as opposed to China, but there are different relationships between what's happening in Europe and in China, and you'll see that on the next slide. So this is the difference. And this should be commented by ourselves.
So in JSW in terms of what we were able to command in price negotiations with respect to coal and coke, regardless of the models that are used in our automatic price engines, which upload certain values. We can say the following. If we look at coking coal deliveries, the differential between ourselves and the premium coal were around 85% of the premium coking coal level. So this is more or less the same level as in Q4 of last year.
We have to have in mind. We're talking about historic price lows, Having in mind the military conflict, this is something that hasn't been encountered amongst -- or by any of the market players. And we've been able to maintain these price levels. And regardless of that, all of the negotiations are being run based on the same standards, having in mind also the high price points.
And this is something that doesn't deviate from what we've seen in the past or consuming the market. If we look at the ratios versus historic relationships, there's one thing that I've already mentioned previously at a conference -- at the previous conference, the level of mine production. We have to be aware that we're a strategic supplier of coal to our steel customers, in many cases, our -- we account for tens of percentage points of their mix of supply. That's why it's very important to have reliable deliveries from JSW for them.
And so when we talk about negotiations on prices and tonnages, having in mind our contractual obligations from previous periods. We cannot forget about this. And so we work together through partnership talks. And so what wasn't done in 2021 is something that will be delivered in Q1 and Q2, according to the conditions of Q4 of last year. And that's why it's a bit of a burden to us. But having in mind the prices that we're able to command, and the price points we've seen this is something that's unheard of in the history of the company, and we're benefiting from that.
If we look at the prices for coking -- blast furnace coke. Here, the situation is a little more complicated and volatile. So we have record-breaking levels for coke for several quarters now. So the spread between coking coal and coke was very large. It's flattening now. And so some of the relationships are starting to reverse during the COVID period when we had a lot of problems in terms of selling our coke because if there were any negative events, in terms of the supply side, generally speaking, this hits our coke segment because steel mills have their own production capacities, and they want to protect their in-house production capacities.
So they want to utilize 100% of the production capacity of the coking plants they have. And that's good for us because that means they're going to buy -- it's a guarantee of them buying our coking coal. But at the same time, then they buy less coke, which they buy from external sources. And this was caused by the -- during the COVID period. And you can see that on these bars. If you look at the gray and the black bars, the black bars our prices for overseas coke as opposed to the European markets. The European markets are the gray bars.
So you can see that in the overseas markets and the fact that we have a diversified sales base, we've been able to generate higher prices because there wasn't the same level of demand in Europe as elsewhere. If we look at Q1 of the current year, this trend is totally different. We can say that we -- the European market -- well, steel mills are operating at 100%.
And so we're selling 100% of the coke on the European market, and that's why the price in Europe is higher than we see on the overseas markets. And the ratio of prices commanded, which we give as JSW where we have the 76%. Well, this is mathematically calculated only up to the European prices.
So you see the $630 price point for Europe. This is for blast furnace coke. But the data we have at JSW, where we have aggregated data. This also includes blast furnace coke as well as all of the minor fractions. And so this is a matter of giving you some explanation about why this ratio is at 76%. Well, we maintain market diversification through sales on overseas markets. Despite the lower price, we don't want to withdraw from those markets to ensure that we have a safe position as those markets consume our coke. And so we're basically benefiting in a slightly different way.
Now there's another situation. We presented the inventories at the previous conference. And as we go on to the inventories, we said that in our coking plants, we had slightly higher inventories. And this was because we were making overseas sales, and those inventories weren't -- didn't leave the ports on the 31st of December, but like a little -- in the early days of January, so they become part of Q1 '22, which we're reporting now. And we're now posting them according to the prices of Q4. So this is a matter of the commentary in terms of the price level achieved for coke now.
So in my opinion, this is a record high level. This is a price point, which continues to build despite such high coal prices. This is the main driver of the results of JSW. And so we have, again, a profit in the coking segment. So if you look at the framework period, the benchmark period, you now understand how those 3 price negotiation models operate, and what our results are on that basis.
One other comment about the steam coal market. The current system we use on the local Polish market and the supply from JSW of our volume. Basically, this is 2 million, 2.5 million tons of steam coal that we supply to the market. And basically, it can be consumed on account of quality only by the Polish commercial power sector. So some 90-odd percent is sold to the domestic market, we're not a major player nor are we a price maker. This is a price -- sorry, this is a market where we sell some products. We know that the domestic market operates according to certain different roles as opposed to the ARA price points.
We have the Polish power sector price index. And this is defined by the power plants and the major supplier here, we've exceeded that level over Q4. And this is a result or compilation of 2 events. Basically, the power market has changed a lot and some of the volume on top of the basic contracts we're able to offer. So certain options for sale. Some quantities are sold in the spot markets, and we're able to sell them for totally different conditions and in part, utilizing international market price points. And we can say that these contracts are totally disjointed from the annual price index.
And the other argument why this ratio is substantially higher than what we've seen in the past. So even though we've made certain agreements with the commercial power sector, and having certain options at higher prices, we wanted to consume these amounts in Q1. We agreed on that with our consumers, and that's one of the reasons why we have a price point that's clearly above the annual Polish coal index, coal price index.
The next slide is the sales of coal we produced in JSW Group. Basically, the CEO showed you that all of our ratios are in the black. They've moved up. So we have a good production level in Q1, and we had the ability to sell all of the production we had at our disposal. And at the same time, we were able to sell down our inventories from 2021. This pertains in part to coking coal, but to a greater extent to steam coal.
And so inventories continue to fall, and that means our sales are even higher. And so this has generated additional sales through the volume, not only because of the price. But -- so this is very positive. If we look at the absolute figures, in Q4, we sold 2.66 million tons of coal. And so in Q1, it's up by some 6% to 2.8 million tons. That was the difference between Q4 and Q1. And this increase took place with respect to steam coal as well as coking coal.
And if we look at the sales to internal customers. So this is just coking coal that we deliver to our coking clients. And we have an increase of 8.4%. And the reason is -- there's 1 reason. Our coking plans are utilizing 100% of their production capacity. As Mr. Pazdziorko said, Przyjazn, Jadwiga and Radlin are utilizing 100% of the production capacity, and they're utilizing in-house coal. And this is a matter of rebuilding inventories such that in Q2, we will have any perturbation, and we'll be able to maintain the 100% capacity utilization.
So if we go on then to external customers. So we have price increases and increases in volumes. And this is something we've been able to achieve in each product area. And so we're up 31.7%, if you compare to Q4 of last year. And that means we had PLN 2.035 billion in sales. So we went up to PLN 2.67 billion, probably to PLN 2.68 billion in sales. So we had an increase of 26.3% in terms of the average sales price and then 32.6% increase in steam coal prices if we compare Q4 of last year to Q1 of this year.
The next slide tells you about what's happened in terms of coke sales. Coke sales to external buyers. This is what we're producing in coking plants. We're selling into the domestic market. Most of the markets are European and overseas markets where we're selling, and we have an increase of 7.2% in coke sales from Q4 to Q1. So as we maintain the utilization of 100% of our production capacity, we've been able to sell down basically our inventories.
This is in part the posting of those quantities. We mentioned that we're in the shipyards. And so the average price of coke we commanded is up by nearly 13%. So in all of our products, we're able to generate higher prices, both with respect to volume and price side. And so the average price for coke sales went up from PLN 1,700 to PLN 1,900 , and the sales revenue as a result of the tonnage increase and the price increase. And so we went up from PLN 1.7 billion to PLN 2.059 billion.
And then the last slide I have is the level of inventories as I've already mentioned this in part. So if you look at -- we start from March of 2021 through the various reporting periods. You can see that we have a clear decline in inventories from 1.7 million tons when we started to report these results all the way down to 672,000 tons, and this consists of coking coal and steam coal. Primarily, this is steam coal. And the CEO, Mr. Tomasz Cudny said, basically, we've been reducing the size of our coal storage yards.
Of course, there are certain technical limitations, the ability to load and transport that merchandise. This is something that's going on the entire time. And so this trend is very positive, and that means we're able to accrue additional cash by selling down those volumes at the current price points. And if we look at the coke we've produced, as I mentioned, we dropped down from 239,000 tons 170,000 tons. This is a result of 2 shipments that were posted in January. And -- because they weren't shipped at the very end of December.
So if we estimate the level of 110,000 -- so we can say we should always have inventory of around 170,000, 180,000 tons to be able to handle shipments. And -- so perhaps we'd want to have a slightly higher level of inventory looking at what's happening in the economy, generally speaking, and having in mind the logistics problems that are out there and could be expected.
It's in the interest of the group to maintain this inventory level at a slightly higher level in the Polish ports to make sure that we have security of supply, if we were to have any logistic problems in order to be able to deliver that product from Silesia to the 3 Baltic ports. We have signed contracts with in Poland. And I think that's more or less it in terms of my remarks on the sales and market situation.
I can only emphasize that we have very vibrant conditions, we're at unheard of levels in the history of the company's existence. Of course, there is a risk load linked to that risk inherentness. I'm fully aware of that. But this is a situation that we will try to leverage to the greatest extent possible in the interest of JSW. Thank you for your attention.
Ladies and gentlemen, if we look at JSW Group's investments. If we look at the CapEx in JSW Group without consolidation eliminations on an accrual basis. Q1, we were -- had a CapEx of nearly PLN 514 million. We have 2 segments -- we have a breakdown into segments. So PLN 389.9 million, that was the CapEx for the coal segment. So that's more than 72% of the total CapEx.
The second segment, which is the coke segment. Well, that was PLN 95 million. This represents some 17.5% of the total CapEx in the Q1 '22. And then we had PLN 29 million, which was the result or the CapEx in other segments. So if we look at the other segment, and the coking segment. so it was down by around PLN 7 million.
If we look at comparison to Q4, we had an increase in CapEx in the coal segment. And so if you look at these 2 segments, we can say if we look at Q4 as the benchmark quarter and compare that to Q1 '22. We had an increase of 2.1% -- 2.1% increase. So we are up in the coal segment. And we had an increase to PLN 173 million from Q1 2021. And so if we look at the investment construction. So it was PLN 129 million. And so we had an increase of some 15%. And if we look at the expensable mining pits, we have more than PLN 173 million, and the CapEx for lease which is nearly PLN 36 million.
So if you look at the CapEx in the JSW KOKS Company on an accrual basis, we can say that we were down in our 2 flagship products. So the coking battery #4 at Przyjazn coking plant and then building the energy unit in Radlin. So if we compare that to Q1 '21 as opposed to Q1 '22, we have an increase of more than PLN 400 million.
If we look at the capital expenditure in the overall group, having in mind the pay downs of lease payments. So in Q1 2022, we had more than PLN 541 million. And so if we look at the 2 main segments, the coal and coke segment. So we had a similar breakdown, so more than 72% is in the coal segment and the coking segment is 17.5%.
And so we compare that to Q4 of 2021. Those expenditures -- we're 15% up. And so the result has shifted because payments are made a little bit later from Q4 2021. In turn, if we look at Q1 of this year to the -- so we can say that were PLN 54 million, which is roughly 10%. So thank you for your attention.
So welcome, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Robert Ostrowski. It's my pleasure to present the last portion of our presentation where we talk about the financial results generated by the JSW Group. My colleagues have discussed with you the production side in our mines, in our coking plants. We have the market context. And you've seen information about the record-breaking prices we've been able to command. Well, this is fully reflected in the financial results of the group in Q1.
Let me begin with the basics. So in Q1 of this year, our sales revenue on a consolidated basis was PLN 4.93 billion. So this is 27.3% more than in Q4 of last year, which was also a good period in this respect. We had high volumes. We had high prices, and that's why the sales revenue is so much more vibrant. And so we can say that it's more than PLN 1.1 billion than we had from Q4 of last year.
And so if we look at the similar period from last year, when we had only PLN 2 billion. So we had an increase of 147% in terms of just the sales revenue upswing. And that means the financial results and liquidity -- we'll talk about liquidity. Those results are extraordinarily strong. And so the group's EBITDA net of nonrecurring events was PLN 2.598 billion, and this is something that's up by 40% versus Q4 of last year.
In Q1 2021, we only had a little bit less than PLN 113 million EBITDA. And so the group at the end of March of this year had positive net working capital. And so it was PLN 1.6 billion. At the end of the last year, it was also positive. But if we look at the end of September, the difference is PLN 2.35 billion.
Over a 6-month period, we have these types of improvement in working capital. And what was said by the CEO at the very beginning, the net result was PLN 1.85 billion compared to a Q4 result, which was very decent, which was PLN 1.015 billion. So we have an increase in the net result of 82.2%. And we had a loss of PLN 179 million in Q1 2021.
So let me say a few words about what's happened with the revenue of the group in Q1 of this year compared to volumes and prices commanded by JSW Group from its customers. So in Q4 2021, we had PLN 3.87 billion in revenue. And then we can look at the various segments.
So the sales volume of coking coal improved our revenue -- sales revenue by more than PLN 59 million. That's 3.2% more coking coal sold in this period compared to Q4 of last year. To a more -- to a bigger extent, our revenue was driven by what happened with the prices for coking coal. The coking coal prices were up by more than 26%. That information was given. So we had PLN 1,036 per ton.
To a lesser extent, but we also still had a positive impact. This was a result of the volume increase in steam coal sales. So this grew by more than 10%, and this gave us an increase of nearly PLN 25 million in sales revenue but the average price for steam coal moved up by some 30-odd percent, and that meant that our revenue was up by more than PLN 84 million. So we can say that steam coal because of volume and because of price, we had an increase of PLN 109 million, and coking coal give us an upswing of more than PLN 530-odd million.
When we come to coke, the total impact of volume and price is PLN 320 million, 1/3 of that is because of volume. That's PLN 111 million, and 2/3 of that -- so that was price -- was -- so that was the volume. It was PLN 111 million, but the price improved our revenue by more than PLN 210 million. So the total impact was PLN 321 million.
And then if we look at hydrocarbons, and other things that aren't part of this segment. We had an increase of PLN 92 million. And so hydrocarbons themselves increased things by some PLN 36 million. So we can say that the total revenue in Q1 was PLN 4.931 billion, almost.
So the next slide shows us the situation on the cost side caused by nature. And so please have in mind the fact that the volumes of production are up. We had a slight decline in the coking segment. Nevertheless, the costs in Q1 were PLN 2.7015 billion, and the costs were up by 8.2% over Q4. So that's nearly PLN 205 million.
So the main condition -- main factors -- drivers. This is because of employee benefits. And so this is an increase of more than 17%. This is because of a salary agreement signed with the labor unions in January of this year. And so rates were raised by some 10%. And then the preventive meals had prices increased from PLN 21 to PLN 30 per meal. And we also had an increase because of people working on Saturdays and Sundays. And so energy is up by some PLN 27 million. That's more than 15% more.
I'll talk about that in just a couple of minutes. We also had higher depreciation by not more than PLN 9 million. So this is up by nearly 3 percentage points. And we also had higher utilization of materials for production. So more than PLN 8 million. This is a little bit more than 2%. So in this period, we had external services down by some PLN 24 million. So this is 5% down -- more than 5% down from the previous quarter.
So now if we look at the bridge approach, we can talk about the main cost categories. Depreciation grew by more than PLN 9 million. This is because of the settlement of depreciation for corridor works, which are tunneled in order to be able to operate longwalls. And since we were -- we had higher production by some 100-odd tons.
And that means that we had to capitalize some of those costs for the galleries and the roadways. So if we look at the utilization of materials, we had an increase of more than PLN 8 million, and that's because we did more corridor works in-house. So we didn't hire external companies to do that. We do this in-house. And that meant we needed to have more production materials in order to do that corridor work, and that was 18,000 meters.
And if we look at the increase of energy cost. This is up by some PLN 27 million. For our units, primarily the mines, we purchased 76-megawatt hours of electricity. At the same time from the beginning of the year, we have a change in the settlement system for energy produced by JSW KOKS and this was used for our mines as of 1 January.
This energy is sold on the external market to the grid, but the balance is also covered by purchases from the external market. And so JSW KOKS sold 101 gigawatt hours to the external market because of new regulations, but we purchased 76 gigawatt hours. But it's noteworthy here during Q1, in JSW and JSW KOKS, we've reduced the consumption of energy by some 10 gigawatt hours, and there were some 71 gigawatt hours at JSW itself.
If we look at external services, we have a lower level -- we already gave you the information about the salary increases. And so this PLN 191 million. Other costs are immaterial. And basically, we had a decrease of PLN 6.6 million. So in total costs of Q1 were PLN 2.7 billion.
In this slide, in turn, refers to the mining cash costs and the cash conversion cost for Coke. In Q1 of this year, the mining cash cost was PLN 1.68 billion. On a ton of coal, the cost was PLN 446 of last year. In 2021, Q1, it was 433.26watts. And if we look at the unit mining cash cost, so we had an increase of 29.27%. So those are the costs that we mentioned before that increases the cost. And so they had higher coal production, this reduced the unit mining cash cost by PLN 22. So volume increase contributed to the reduction in the unit mining cash cost.
If we look at the coke production, which is called cash conversion cost, it hasn't changed significantly between Q4 and Q1. So the cash conversion cost in Q1 of this year is PLN 196.96, it's only up by 0.1%. And we have to remember that the coking plants produced slightly less coke in the same period. If we look at the cash conversion cost at a unit basis, so we can say we were able to reduce the unit cash conversion costs by PLN 3.59. But since we had 17,000 tons fewer coke produced, this increased the unit cash conversion costs by PLN 3.84. And that's why we had PLN 196.96 per tone of coke.
Now I'd like to go on and talk about the factors driving EBITDA in the group in Q1. And this bridge shows you the differences from Q4 to Q1. The total impact of volume and price of sales of coal. As I mentioned, so we had an increase -- the sales of coking coal is up by some 3%, steam coal was up by 10%. The prices were up. And so this meant that the increase -- the combined impact is PLN 644.5 million. If we look at coke, the average coke price is up by nearly 14%. So the total impact on EBITDA was PLN 321.5 million compared to what we saw in Q4 of last year.
Of course, we also show you what the impairment losses, how they change things. So compared to the previous quarter, we have nearly PLN 228 million. So in this quarter, we had an PLN 83 million, nearly, impairment loss from Q1. And so one of them is the right-of-use assets. And then we also have coal assets. In Q4, we had a test of impairment value -- an impairment test, and this was PLN 643 million for the coal segment. And the coking segment, we talked about that at the annual results presentation. And we also had a reversal as a result of the impairment test of PLN 355 million in both segments. And this is what gave us the PLN 228 million. That's the impact on EBITDA.
Then we have other revenue and costs of operations. Here, we have an adjustment of PLN 125.7 million. And so EBITDA prior to nonrecurring events is PLN 2.6 billion. The nonrecurring events, which may be on a balance are not a major amount because it's PLN 37.6 million in the negative, but I can mention several of the main drivers, which were compiled and led to this net outcome in the adjustment. First, we had the impairment for the loss of coal assets, which is some PLN 80 million in Q1. The second important significant line item, which corrected or adjusted, this was the -- there was a fire in 2020, and we received a claims indemnity, and this is a onetime event where we received this payment.
Then we had the transfer of [indiscernible] to the mine restructuring company SRK. So we had an increase in the release of provisions in terms of closing a mine and employee benefits. This improved the results of EBITDA by some PLN 60 million. So that's in minus because of a nonrecurring event, and that's why EBITDA in Q1, after you net out all of these figures, so it's PLN 2.598 billion. That's the total EBITDA in Q1 of this year.
Then we can look at the impact exerted by operating segments. This is also a bridge approach. So we had an impact of the coal segment, which was PLN 840.5 million. The coke segment has a very minor negative impact of PLN 8.3 million. Segment has a plus positive impact of PLN 12.8 million. Then we have the consolidation eliminations, which is PLN 223.2 million. This is in plus. And then that we have the less -- the nonrecurring events of PLN 37.6 million, and that's why we have the difference in the ultimate outcome that I presented a moment ago.
Now if we look at the financial data, which we present to you, we have a slide showing you the transfer from assets to cash. So the carrying value of our assets is PLN 17.7 billion. And the working capital is PLN 1.626 billion. And this is as a result of having in mind the provisions. So we have 3 items here. Loans -- bank loans, the total difference here is PLN 4 billion. Then we have another line item, which is PLN 2.36 billion. And then we have other current liabilities, PLN 1.18 billion according to the balance sheet. And that means we have constant or fixed capital in our liabilities and equity, including our equity. In our long-term liabilities, we have PLN 13.7 billion. And if we take into consideration our PPE, we have PLN 9.49 billion, and then we have intangible assets of nearly PLN 118 million. And then we have other PPE of PLN 2.5 billion, and that gives us to the net working capital of PLN 1.625 billion.
So once again, in a slightly different approach, you can see the various items of current assets and current liabilities. So you can see once again that our net working capital is PLN 1.625 billion. So I won't discuss this in detail. Maybe just say a couple of words about bank. And loans were down by a significant amount. And this is above all because of having such vibrant cash flow, and having contracts with a bank club. In terms of a revolving loan, when we have a shortage of liquidity and this enables us to improve our liquidity, the Management Board -- this is a revolving loan of PLN 340 million. We decided to pay that down but not close the contract. The contract is still up and running. So let's knock on unpainted wood.
So if it was necessary to utilize these funds, we have the option this PLN 360 million. So this is something that's at disposal of the company. If we look at the pay down liabilities, I would emphasize according to the contracts we've signed with PFR, the Polish Development Fund. On a quarterly basis, we're paying down 2 loans in the course of the year. This would change the debt by PLN 360 million. So on a quarterly basis, this is around PLN 90 million. And so at the end of March, we've incorporated the payment of those 2 loans from PFR.
Then we have 2 additional ratios, which is the fixed capital cover -- or the current coverage ratio. And you can see at the end of the March, we're at 1.01. So this is -- we can say that our assets are fully covered by long-term capital. The second ratio -- so if you look at the value of our loans, leasing contracts and bank loans, minus the cash we have at the end of the period, where we can see a decline at the end of March where we're at a negative level of PLN 860 million. This means that the cash we have is higher than our liabilities, under the net debt ratio and we anticipate that this value will be negative as long as -- having in mind the investment certificates we have in the stability fund. And so basically, the cash balance is by the value of the investment certificates we purchased in the fees.
And the Management Board has made a decision according to our corporate rules that we would inject PLN 5 billion into the stability fund. This is the limit defined by the company. That doesn't mean that in the short-term future, this will be done. And so this is something that should be incorporated when we calculate the net debt. So basically liquidate some of those investment certificates, and this can be used to support the liquidity position of the company very easily.
Now a few more words about our cash flow in the group. So we had nearly PLN 1.3 billion in cash flow. So the profit was 2.9 -- sorry, PLN 2.29 billion. Then depreciation increases, that by PLN 327 million. So then -- then we have of course the decline in the inventories of a little bit more than PLN 11 million. Then we have an increase of receivables by PLN 352 million. This is not because of having overdue receivables, [ no ], this is because we sold more at higher prices. And that's why we have more assets as current receivables.
And then our payables have grown up by PLN 66 million. Our operating liabilities, PLN 135 million, which is up. Then we had our investment commitments done in the coke segment. And the coal segment is PLN [ 191.8 ] million. This is the cash flow. Then we paid down loans. So we have the revolving loan and the loans from -- to loans from PFR. So those are the main items. We have some smaller amounts. So the total cash outlay for that was PLN 484 to pay down those loans and then payments for lease down PLN 50.6 million. And the differences because of foreign exchange translation is PLN 20 million. And that's why at the end of March of this year, in the capital group, we have PLN 2.7 billion.
That's more or less it from my side in the financial side of things. So at the end, I'd just like to add that the results in this quarter, on one hand, don't take into consideration the situation that the CEO mentioned at the very beginning. So the natural disasters in 2 of our mines -- because this is something that occurred in -- this will be -- this took place in April, so in Q2. But if we look at the degree of achievement of our operational targets, we can say that we're going to be able to achieve our strategic objectives, which we talked about when we presented the revised strategy for the group. Thank you.
So I'd like to thank the management team for presenting the results, the group generated in Q1. And now -- we had questions that were posed to the Investor Relations department prior to our meeting and during our meeting.
And so I'd like to ask you to read out the questions. And so basically, management Board members will respond to those questions.
Welcome. So we have a large number of questions. So I'll try to read the questions as time allows.
The first question is production in Pniówek and Zofiówka, in other areas, outside of where the accidents took place? Or do we have 100% production being done? Or are there some other limitations in those 2 mines?
So if we look at those areas where those events didn't take place, we are doing normal production according to all of the safety rigors that were defined for the various wall faces. So we can say that in Pniówek, we had a longwall that was affected. And it was only the case that during the rescue operation, we had to limit one of the other longwalls because this was the ventilation path. And so it was also treated as an area that was endangered in terms of Zofiówka. We're talking about preparatory longwall. So this did not affect any of the other longwalls. And so those are up and running today.
As a result of the last accidents because they have a long-term impact? Is it possible that more rigorous safety indices will be introduced where this could also affect the run rate?
As I mentioned, during the first response, with respect to all of the mines, we always undertake and follow certain rigors due to the hazards that have been identified. If there's a more rigorous set of principles. Well, the commission will put together its findings and conclusions to investigate the causes of both events. Certainly, those events will lead to some responses, and they may impact how we organize the work, and we'll have to organize basically or incorporate those additional rigors, and we're going to continue to do our mining operations. We'll have to have them in mind.
The next question is about our stability fund. Why -- how did you come -- arrive at the target value? What are the risks? For what period of time? And how low of prices of coal?
Thank you for the question. So as I've said previously, we made the decision as a management team. The first one in terms of increasing our exposure to that fund by PLN 700 million and that decision was made in April. But as we assess the situation after Q1 and looking at the forward-looking market, we wanted to make a formal set up -- we wanted to do a formal procedure. We wanted to set up a cap of PLN 5 billion, so another bit of money.
So having in mind the major pace of results in terms of what's happening on the steel market, the coking coal market, what's happening in terms of the armed conflict, and the inability to assess how that will affect the prospects of companies in our industry. And at the same time, we wanted to build an ability to safeguard our liquidity in the future. We felt that a PLN 5 billion cap, that means we won't have to ask for additional corporate consents. And as we generate surpluses of cash, we're going to be able to invest that money in the investment certificates in the -- in this closed-end investment fund.
Then we have a question about the reduced production. What is the potential split of that 400,000 tons over the subsequent quarters this year, the reduced production?
So ladies and gentlemen, if we look at the figure we mentioned. This was the initial estimate in terms of the Pniówek mine and the Zofiówka mine. Right now, analysis is underway with the mines and along with all of the other mines in our company. And after we complete our analytical work, we'll draw some conclusions -- and this will pertain not only to the organization of labor, but also what's happening in other wall faces in other sections and mines. And this will also talk about the load of various longwalls. So this distribution of that estimated reduction in production could be different. So I think today, we can say that we'll be able to give more thorough knowledge about that only after we complete our analytical work in terms of giving you an actual estimate of losses over the year.
What is the risk in terms of Pniówek and [indiscernible] in terms of -- what's the percentage risk of those areas being shut out from production in the long term?
Well, as we've given you initial feedback during these events. And these 2 events are not linked to one another. One, in Pniówek, this was related to methane. And the other one was related to geological and gas dynamics. So the methane that was taking place -- methane was the main factor, the main culprit. The risks we have if we look at these events, and having in mind the recommendations given by the Director of the Mining Authority. We've analyzed all of the mine faces not only in those 2 mines, but in all of our mines.
And the experts, the scientists people are seasoned, in case we -- they came to the conclusion that the work is being done in compliance with the various decisions, rigors and current state of knowledge. We know that the longwall in Pniówek -- this was the longwall that was at the final stage of utilization, whereas in Zofiówka, this is a forward-looking parcel for that mine. So every risk does exist. But today, we would say that it's a lesser risk of doing -- leaving coal, not to be taken. This is also a risk of sorts for other parcels.
Then we have another question about the long-term estimates. If we look at those events, what will be the impact on our production in 2023 and 2025? Should we have higher costs and capital expenditure for those years?
Today, it would be premature to provide such detailed forecasts about CapEx or future OpEx. I would say -- when we talk about Pniówek extraction, the other work to setup new longwalls, well, this work is ongoing. If we look at Zofiówka in turn, this is only a matter of a time shift. And the conclusions that will come from the findings of the commission that's investigating the causes will be incorporated. So I think we'll have to have in mind the conclusions from the analytical work we're doing as well. With respect to the both longwalls that we want to operate this year, and we'll get a full response to what's going to happen this year after a certain period of time, we'll be able to define what the impact will be on future years.
Okay. Thank you very much. The next question is about the costs. Having in mind the current inflation trends for materials and energy, to what extent do you believe that costs will increase in Q2 and Q3 of this year compared to Q1 of this year, having in mind that we're going to have a stable run rate?
Ladies and gentlemen, today's conference is about Q1 results, and we've shown you the rate of growth of costs and what's happened with cash and this first to past quarters. If we talk about forward-looking estimates, we don't respond to those questions on that subject. But any indications given at these meetings, there would be guidelines for our suppliers. We have a free market, and we are participating in tenders and so we receive offers based on supply and demand. And so suppliers make the calculations for production means, means of production and then we're receiving offers. And that impacts our results and our costs. So we don't really want to make any remarks on that subject.
The next question is related to that. We're talking about the level of salaries, what sort of salary increases are you planning for 2023?
Please repeat the question.
What salary increases do you anticipate for 2023?
I'll respond to that question in the following way. Well, because the member of our team who is responsible for that subject area is representing us at a different meeting. In 2023, money budgeted for employees will be put together in our business plan, for which we have an abbreviation, PT, and we'll work on that in Q4 of this year. And to extend my response to that question, what I'd like to say that this year, 2022, we're following the same rules as we will do for 2023. The budget for employee benefits is in our business plan, so economic and business plan, technical plan -- and so we put that together in Q4 of last year. Then in January of this year, we signed an agreement with the trade unions and both parties are honoring that system in performing that system.
Then we have a question about the lines of credit and the investment front. What are your negotiations looking like in terms banks and others about future lines of credit?
Thank you for that question. So we presented to you our updated strategy. We sat down at the table individually with each one of the banks financing JSW today, we presented our assumptions in this strategy and what are the underlying assumptions for our financial model. We collected and compiled declarations of cooperation from banks, and this is a broader group of banks than the ones that are currently financing.
The operations of JSW. Right now, we're selecting a financial and legal adviser. And in the near future, we'll start working on a term sheet. And by the end of the year, we'll be able to find the detailed conditions for how we're going to work with the financial market and the banking market, and we'll have a totally new structure of financing.
Having in mind with what we talked to you about in terms of the strategy. So we want to reduce the carbon footprint by some 30% by 2030. This is going to be a very important element of our financing mix. So today, after these discussions with each one of the banks individually, and bilaterally, we're going to be to put together the term sheet as a result of those bilateral discussions.
Many investors are asking about a dividend. Does the company -- has the company made any arrangements with PFR to be able to pay out a dividend? And then a question that's linked to that would share buyback be subject to paying down the loans with PFR?
The loans with PFR secured our liquidity in 2020 and 2021. So we had nearly PLN 1.2 billion in loans from PFR. And we had highly preferential terms in terms of the cost of money. And so the pay down or amortization of those loans on a quarterly basis. This is roughly PLN 90 million, so [ PLN 360 ] million per year. So having in mind the preferential terms of those loans, we don't see any special benefits for the company. Having in mind this preferential terms to prepay or pay down those loans, but it is true the ability to pay a dividend, well, this discussion will be taken up. We don't know the outcome of those talks.
What about the share buyback? Is that something that's defined in the PFR loan agreements?
We're not considering a share buyback as a management team. So this is not even a matter for discussion.
Then there's a request to update production in Jadwiga, have the major geological problem has been overcome?
Ladies and gentlemen, the mine there -- to be generally speaking, we have 2 areas. We have [indiscernible] and so the mining work that's being done there. So we're doing that in [indiscernible] And we have a longwall and [indiscernible] And so that longwall has been set up in March of this year, we accelerated it by 2 weeks. The other mining work is still being done in [indiscernible]. And we have preparatory work being done on 5 wall faces.
And so basically, we're doing the cross cuts there. This is more than a kilometer of deposit. And so we can see that we have rich tectonics in terms of fault lines and the location in terms of how that seam of coal lies. And so we have a special team that's working on that subject and analyzing that and we're gathering all of that information.
After we complete our analysis, we'll be able to provide more information and bring copilot and perhaps at the next conference, we'll be able to say more about how that parcel will be cut and the complicated geological structure is something that we're surveying to the greatest extent possible. So we're doing a lot more here to understand that geological structure. Thank you.
Now we have several questions in sales. Since March, do we see any different discounts for local producers having in mind the loss of access to coal from the East and what's happening on the overseas markets.
Well, I think we can say clearly the system of quotation for coking coal, which is in place is something that has been sustained the entire time. This type of stuff can be examined only on the spot market. As JSW, we strive to be a strategic supplier to our customers. So that's why we talk about long-term contracts. We have to secure our sales of 14 million tons of coke and 3 million tons -- sorry, of coking coal -- of coal, and 3 million tons of coke. So we want to have stable long-term contracts, which have certain price mechanisms that are embedded even if we have negotiations based on market conditions, there are certain practices that have been devised and shaped in these relations, and these are things that don't change much, if at all.
Having in mind these discussions about shifts in discounts, this could be dangerous to either of the parties to these contracts. It's easy to imagine. Today, we have a historically high price level -- and these kind of discussions could lead to a large number of conclusions. So having in mind the current price levels, we have to be aware that for some of our buyers, some of our customers. It might be problematic for them to sell on these products, and so changes of discounts because of unexpectedly high prices.
Basically, all of this could go in the opposite direction. So the discounts could be much higher than it would seem or appear. This is how I understand the conclusion from this question that if some of the volume disappears from the Eastern market, well, there are certain logistics problems. Well, there could be shortages on this marketplace.
So generally speaking, it could be logical for people to conclude that the discounts should be minimized. But these type of conclusions could also lead you to a situation that would be totally different. When I said at the outset of our presentation, we function in a highly volatile market. So sales, and we had low prices in the past, and then we had a totally different situation today. So there's a high level of volatility. Things can change.
Geopolitical factors are unpredictable. And I can imagine a situation in which, if anything were to change, that was unexpected, and the situation could change where we have an oversupply of raw materials for any reason whatsoever, then the discussion could come up about obtaining much higher discounts because of the availability of alternative sources of coking coal, but this could also apply to coke, and could apply to other raw materials as well.
And in those cases, if we talk about oversupply, if that will occur, and having in mind lower price points than what we have at present, and this could be exacerbated -- so the discounts could be exacerbated. And this would be painful to the producers. So these are discussions with various points of view.
And I understand that you, as analysts, had posed questions of the sort in the past, I think, 3 or 4 quarters ago. When we had the zenith of the conflict between Australia and China. And so we've had prices from the U.S. much higher and prices in Australia were much lower, and this was an abnormal situation.
And the question was posed to us about changing the quotation of our coal and switching from Australian prices to American prices, which then later turned out that, that would be very painful to us as a company, had that taken place.
So to respond, clearly, no, we do not plan any changes of indices nor discounts. We have stable contracts and any discounts come only from the quality of our coal versus premium coal grades. So of course, on spot markets, you can imagine using that type of approach. But if we look at the general situation in Q1, we're fully covered by long-term contracts. And so this type of situation isn't taking place at present.
Many investors are asking about the increase in prices. And this is about steam coal in Poland. There's an appetite for raising prices. And so there are negotiations in PGG, price negotiations. Other players are raising their prices. Can we anticipate in subsequent quarters that JSW will raise its prices for steam coal, if so, by what amount?
I'd like to draw your attention to one thing. The question goes beyond today's results conference. I understand the question is about future quarters and trading conditions that will take place in upcoming quarters. So today, we can't give a response to the question. I can only say the following. We're fully aware of how the steam coal market is developing, not only in Poland but across the world. We have -- we stay abreast of that. We understand the quality of our product, and what the consumption of steam coal is. We observed the market we track, what's happening. The company has undertaken certain measures. But in terms of the results of these activities that cannot be reported today because we're a market player, listed as a public company. This can be done on the 18th of August at the next conference.
Since we have a few more -- we have many more questions, but we have time limitations. If we look at the transfer, free of charge economic area. Is this something that's a one-off? Or is this going to be settled in future periods?
So ladies and gentlemen, this is a one-off. Once we turned over the [indiscernible] economic area to the SRK, mining restructuring company. This is the result -- this is the reason we were able to reverse provisions. So this is a one-off. And so this is not something that can be repeated in the future.
Then we have a question about the costs of external services in Q1 '22. On year-on-year basis, why did they grow by such a small amount?
So during the presentation, we discussed that if we talked about the costs by nature. So external services compared to Q4 of last year, where they fell. This is a result of the fact -- this is because of renovation services fell. But some of the external services, actually, prices grew because we sold more coal and coke. And so we had more transport services, but this is pro rata to sales revenue. So the transport of our products grew, other products fell or services fell and that's why it's related to sales.
Why do we have a loss of PLN 144 million on derivatives? What sort of derivatives do you have? What sort of cash flow? How is the company safeguarding or hedging its position?
Thank you for the question. This is a topic that comes up again and again at our conferences. As I told you, we have a risk management -- financial risk management committee. This is a team that exists, consists of several departments, the financial department, the controlling department, the sales department, with various representatives. And basically, FX exposure, what's happening with coal prices. We also look especially now at interest rate risk -- and so this team makes decisions about hedges for FX risk and coal price risk.
And as a result, of coal price trend moving up in terms of commodity swaps. Historically speaking, the prices were lower today. The settlement of those transactions, we had a negative outcomes or loss, this confirms that the prices that we achieved today are higher when prices -- if those prices would fall, then those transactions would generate profits. But since we have a loss here, that's because we have coking coal and coal and coal prices moving up. So we have major benefits generally speaking, from this position.
We'd like to thank you very much for the questions. and other questions that will come in. So the Investor Relations department will consult with the various departments to give you responsive if new questions come in. So we're going to wrap up today's conference. We'd like to thank all of you who have contributed to achieving such good results in the company. We'd like to thank you the organization -- thank the organization on today's conference.
And I'd like also to thank all of the people who've supported us in this very difficult and trying period. Nothing else can be done. We can't share our feelings in any other way. We just need to say thank you from a deep felt, heartfelt position. So on behalf of the management team, the staff, the supervisor, they all share in our words of gratitude for your support in this time. Thank you.
[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]