Jastrzebska Spolka Weglowa SA

WSE:JSW

Earnings Call Transcript 2022-Q3

[Tomasz Cudny, executive]

Good morning. I would like to welcome you to the conference which will be run by the management team of JSW Group, the results in Q3 2022 and the results during the first 9 months of the year. The Management Board is today Robert Ostrowski, who is principally responsible for financial matters; then we have Sebastian Bartos responsible for Commercial Affairs; then we have Edward Pazdziorko responsible for production. We're not joined today by the management board member responsible for employee affairs and with trade unions. And my name is Tomasz Cudny, and I am running the management team.

So we've been operating in a very difficult time. We've shown you the results, which we'll talk about in just a moment. The concept, the strategy we embraced is the correct one. We've unwaveringly pursued this strategy and the results are proof positive of that. And somebody might ask why we have more red arrows than green arrows, but Q2, the previous quarter, was a very good quarter, and it was going to be very difficult to replicate that result, especially if we look at the price for our products, so coke and coal.

If we look at coal production, we can say that we're more or less at the same level as in Q2, more than 3.4 million tonnes. Coke production is down by nearly 12%. Here, I'd like to remind some of you and convince others that we are working consistently. We had some events in September in the Przyjazn plant -- and so this stopped production. We're now coming back to a state of normalcy, and we're ramping up our production.

I'd like to say a few words of thanks to all of our employees from the Przyjazn coking plant and all of the companies that have put forward their words of assistance. We were able to remove and rectify the breakdown after the dramatic events in one of the technological lines where deliveries were made to a coking battery.

What's very important here is the number of active longwalls. Comparing to the previous quarter, we're up by 2.5%. This metric drives our production or reflects our production in terms of our technical and production plan. We always analyze the number of longwalls and how much capacity those longwalls offer -- how much capacity those longwalls offer. So if we look at the mining cash cost, it's down to PLN 514 per tonne. Compared to Q2 where -- it's down by 18.5%. So that's a better result.

If we look at sales revenues, this is strictly linked to the average price for coal and coke. This is where we have our revenue that may have tar and other hydrocarbons. We focus here on coal prices. So for coking coal as well as coke, and we generated revenue of PLN 5.146 billion versus Q2, which was a very good quarter in terms of the results and the prices we attracted. It's down by 13.8%. Of course, this has an impact on EBITDA. So it's PLN 2.9 billion, so down by 25.2%. And the net result is PLN 2.1 billion, so it's down by 8.5%. But this, of course, this in comparison to one of the best quarters in the history of JSW. And the quarter -- the result we generated this quarter is also a very robust result.

The fact that we wanted to do and replicate what we did in Q2, that's something that was very difficult. But now let's go ahead and do the presentation of the various sections. And so we'll begin with Edward Pazdziorko.

[Edward Pazdziorko, executive]

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. As we know, I'm going to talk about the coal and coke production metrics. JSW is a producer of a strategic fuel. We produce coking coal, so it's type 34 and type 35, and this is something that sets us apart from other coal producers in terms of basically flash and other factors. It's not fit, of course, for utilization in heating, but some of the parameters can be utilized in the steam coal industry, and that's actually true. So if we look at the year-to-date results and the Q3 results, we can say that we had production in Q3 in excess of 3.4 million tonnes. This was up over Q2 by nearly 1%. This is roughly 30,000 tonnes of difference.

As I mentioned, there were some events that transpired in April. They continue to affect the coking coal output, and this also had an impact on the amount of steam coal and the relative yield. And so we do have down by 8.6% in terms of the coking coal, but what's up is steam coal production. And so we analyzed, of course, the individual longwalls, and we're looking at the ability to drive up the overall output because we have to replace the mines that were down, so -- and we have to supplement that with production from other mines like Budryk and Jastrzebie-Bzie.

And so if you look at the first 9 months of the year, we can say that total production of coking coal was more than 10.6 million tonnes. This was up over the first 9 months of last year by more than 4%. This is more or less a difference of 420,000 tonnes. As I mentioned previously, we have differences in typical coking coal, so 1.3 million tonnes and 453,000 more tonnes of steam coal.

So if we look at each one of the sections, Pniówek had the highest output despite the events that transpired. And if we combined the mines and treat them as mines in total, we can see that the northern mine, we had more than 3.2 million tonnes for the 9 months of the year. And so this was Knurów-Szczyglowice. And then we have Borynia, and it was [ 3.12 million tonnes. ] And then we have 2.7 million tonnes in Pniówek. Budryk is nearly 2 million tonnes. And then we have Bzie, which is more than -- has more than 300,000 tonnes of production.

If we look at the production of coal, as the CEO said, we have 24 longwalls with production up and running. So this was around 23 longwalls for the entire month, but we have a ratio of more than 24 because we have some longwalls where some ended their operations and others got started. So this was on a quarterly basis up 2.5%. If we look at the 9 months of the year, the growth is also noticeable. Q2 was a period when we were doing some analytic work. And we looked at those events, and they compelled us to make some changes, modifications to the plans for each mine. And as I said previously, at present, the output is generally being delivered by the northern mines.

If we look at corridor works in Q3, we can say that we did more than 17,132 running meters. This was less than in Q2 by 282 meters, which is a difference of 1.6%. This is primarily a result of stopping the work as a result of those events in April, and then we had to replan our operations. And that's why in Q3 we had to start up a large number of longwalls, and their effectiveness is not as high at the beginning until you actually ramp them up. And so then we have a higher pace of work. And that's why we believe that Q4 should basically allow us to catch up somewhat.

So if you look at the first 9 months of the year, we can say that we've done nearly 53,000 meters of corridor works. We're down by nearly 13% versus the first 9 months of last year. If we look at these numbers in the comparison, we can say that the events that transpired in April did have an impact, and we've also looked at maintaining existing corridors. So not only tunneling works, but we have some of 4,163 meters of reusing corridors. And so this also suggests the intensity of our work. So we're around 5 -- the ratio of intensity is around 5. And that means that our working -- our plans to produce coal aren't endangered.

So if you look at coke production in Q4, we're at 780,300 tonnes. This is down by nearly 12% versus Q2. Well, of course, this was driven above all by the events that transpired in the Przyjazn coking plant and the capacity to sell and also what we're warehousing in these plants. So if you look at the first 9 months of the year, we can say that production was in excess of 2.5 million tonnes, which is down by more than 8% versus the first 9 months of last year. As I said previously, we had more or less the same factors in play as in Q3. We had 3 coking plants -- so Przyjazn is the largest, its share of coke production is more than 780,000 tonnes. Then we have Jadwiga and the Radlin. The biggest share of coke production or the type of production we have is blast furnace coke, which is more than 75.5% of the total mix. Then we have industrial coke, which is more than 24%, and the rest of products, including metallurgic coke, is around 0.4%.

So thank you very much for your attention.

[Sebastian Bartos, executive]

So thank you very much. I would like to say a few words about the market environment where we're operating. Before we drill down on the data and the figures we've got displayed on the screen, I'd like to say a few words of general commentary about what we saw in Q3, what awaits us in the near future; based on all this data and the figures, the picture that comes to the forefront.

Well, it's all very clear. We had a very good period, extraordinarily high prices in basically every area of our operations -- in steel and coke and coal and hydrocarbons. And I'll speak to that in just a moment. But this situation cannot persist forever. We've told you many times, and this is the nature of our operations, JSW sells products on the market, and there's huge volatility, market volatility. And this is exacerbated by the current geopolitical situation, and the range of volatility is bigger than usual, historically speaking.

So we've had prices of $100, $100-some-odd for a tonne of coal. At some point in time, we were at $650, $680 per tonne. And today, the adjustment had to take place. And as we look at this data on price, steel production, we're dealing with a correction, which is not a surprise to us. We've been in this market for many, many years, and we're aware of that. We are also aware of the fact that these declines, even though declines are pretty high in absolute terms, we don't forget about the starting points. And this is not something you can see in the results in the company, and I'll talk about that in just a moment. The results are much better than what we see on the international market.

So let me say a few general remarks. The group has revenue from selling coking coal and coke. And we don't talk about this in our presentations, but this is a pretty important segment. So our byproducts, so these are hydrocarbons, so this is kind of a byproduct, which is not really a byproduct. This -- well, in our production [ business, ] tar and sulfur. So gas and coking gas and tar generate or attract prices that are higher than our core flagship products. So for blast furnace coke and coking coal, this is bringing in a lot of cash to the group.

So coming back to the presentation itself. What's happening on the market? Steel production: there is a clear correction across the world. We have a decline of 7.5% in steel production from 492 million tonnes to 455 million tonnes. It's noteworthy to see what's happening in the EU: the decline is twice as big. It's nearly a 14% shrinkage from quarter-to-quarter.

Let me quote two other pieces of data. In the EU itself, from January until October, the price of electricity has grown by some 45%, where, if we look at natural gas, it's up some 90-odd percent. And this shows what type of macroeconomic situation large steel plants and mills are facing, the overall steel sector and what sort of challenges they're having to face. And so we can say that the shrinkage of production, which is twice as high as across the world, has real reasons.

As you know, the EU is our key market. So this is one of the reasons we're observing this and scrutinizing it in particular. And so if you look at coal and what we've contracted in terms of coal supplies, we can say quite openly that it's the first time in the history of JSW that JSW has long-term contracts for 100% of its production all the way through 2028. The last time, well, we've had a current report from 2, 2.5 weeks ago, which is the last button where we notified the market of selling coal up until 2025 with an option to extend to 2029 at ArcelorMittal. And we can say that our production portfolio is fully covered by long-term contracts.

This is important because as we enter into a difficult and demanding period, where it will be a challenge for the steel milling industry and the European Union -- we have strong foundations to operate here as a local supplier, and we have long-term contracts. Speaking to that -- and so this will be a relatively favorable position to us in terms of coal, so we won't see as much turmoil.

Of course, in the coking segment, we have a much more difficult position because the coking market is much more complicated, much more fragmented. It's subject to much more profound volatility than the coking coal market. There's a wave of multiple factors. It was not without reason that I said what the EU is facing, having in mind how much electricity costs or energy costs because this also has a knock-on impact on the coking segment. So we have integrated steel -- well, coke plants are usually integrated with steel mills. And so it's clear that the steel mills will run the capacity of these coking plants at 100%. And that means there's an excess or surplus of coke, a very high surplus, because one of the product offshoots is coking gas. It's a type of waste product which has huge value because the substitute for that is to buy it from the network -- so natural gas, which now is priced at the level that it's priced at. So the coking market is demanding for our group, but also for other producers.

Another barrier or obstacle we're encountering and facing -- and I've mentioned this many times how important it is to have market diversification. That's why we're present in overseas markets. And that's why we're present in very distant markets, and that's why we won't have that second leg. The difficulty we are facing right now is we've always had the ability to store certain volumes in the Polish ports. Today, we don't have that ability because those ports are filled with coal. And this is a challenge for our company. We're having to look for other solutions and opportunities here because the overarching objective is for our coking plants to continue operating at 100% capacity, and we want to convert our own coal into coke.

I've mentioned what's happening with hydrocarbons. So this byproduct, in terms of prices, it is now something that attracts higher prices than our flagship products. So we're happy to have these 3 legs. And this is something that paints the full picture. And this is now something that's going through a market correction.

If we look at steel prices on the spot markets, so if we look at the quarter-to-quarter decline from Q3 to Q2, so it's down by some 35%, if we look at the average prices for a given quarter. But as you know, our contracts have -- are based on many different price formulas. We have price formulas. We have spot prices. And then we also have the Nippon Steel method, where we have the shift of the quarter by 1 month. And so basically, we have a completion of a 5-month window, which forms our reference for upcoming periods. And we can say that the decline is around 26%. So this is less than what we see in the calendar quarters.

If we look at steel prices, there is a clear correction. If we look at flat products, we don't have prices anymore of EUR 1,100 per tonne. The price levels are below $800 per tonne, where long products, coils, we've had a smaller decline. And this is around EUR 1,000 -- from EUR 1,300 to EUR 1,000. And we have the same relationship, which was not extraordinary. Well, basically, we can see that the long products are more expensive than the flat products. And this is a result of what's happening in the automotive industry in Europe because it's not able to run at full capacity.

This is not only a question of the market, but this is a result of shortages of semiconductors and other components. And this production could have been used, but the production capacity was not used because of shortages.

So if we look at coke prices, we have a decline of some 30% quarter-on-quarter. Whereas on the Chinese market, we have a shrinkage of some 28%, so more or less it's down 1/3. This is a very clear correction, but we have to have in mind what the starting point was, how high we were. And all of the values that the international market has shown us, well, we don't see that in JSW's Q3 results. Well, we have stable contracts to supply coking coal. Coke follows different rules. And so for a given quarter, we're able to sustain certain things. And so we're still benefiting from the prices we saw in Q2, and that's what we're doing. And that's why our Q3 results don't reveal this decline.

Let's move on to the next slide, where we see the prices of our products in relation to market prices. I've already said a few words about the subject. We have the reference period, and how volatile the market is, is pictured by the gray box. So we were around $500 and we're ending the reference period at $250, and that's just a 5-month reference period. Over the last few quarters, what I said, we'd have even greater volatility. And this is -- but these are the conditions in which we have to operate.

So having in mind what our main product is, so coking coal, and looking at the third quarter and how we come out with respect to the rest of the market, we're around 90-odd percent, 92%. So this means that we have stable contracts, sound contracts with very clear mechanisms which guarantee us the ability to achieve these price levels even if the market is very demanding. If we look at coke, so we can see if we look 1 quarter back, the value of our coke, first is the international prices, it ranges from 80-some-odd to 90-some percent. Sometimes it drops down to 70-some-odd percent. So in the previous quarter, we were above average. And this was a result of certain agreements where we had prices at a high level in Q2. Now we have a correction to 76%. And we've seen that in the past. So the relationship between coal and coke prices are distorted and they will continue to be volatile. And this is what I said at the beginning, that the coke market is very complicated and certain parameters are difficult to achieve regardless of where JSW is.

And so the European milling industry, which needs gas, and so it's using all of the opportunities it has to source gas. And our company, without having certain capabilities in order to sell the coke on overseas markets because our ports infrastructure acts as a barrier, so we have to be more aggressive here in the European Union in order to place the production from our 3 coking plants. So we have coking coal as one leg, and we have coke. And so as long as we have relatively high prices, that's a real strength, and we're able to pursue this policy and be more competitive than other suppliers to make sure that we don't lose certain markets.

Because if we look at the balance sheet over time [ and the consolidation ] we're able to transform our own coal, which we don't have to sell on the market, and, therefore, we don't squash the prices there or ruin the market. And that's why we have the relationship we have here between coal and coke. And I would say that these difficulties were persistent until the end of the year. We have a few ideas about what we're going to be able to do next year, but we'll talk about that at a different time during a different presentation.

So returning to the relationship between JSW products and market prices, we have steam coal. Here, the situation is different. At the most recent results conference, we mentioned that we have started to renegotiate prices and that we successfully completed the renegotiations. All of our coal prices for steam coal have been renegotiated. And so we have 108% is our steam coal price relation in relation to PSCMI. This means we're far above the benchmarket (sic) [ benchmark.] And this is not only because of renegotiations where we lost some production in 2 mines -- we informed you of that through 2 current reports. In order to stabilize our production, we're maximizing production in the northern mines. Well, their distinct nature is they have a little bit more steam coal and we have more steam coal there. And this is -- we're selling that to our commercial power sector at spot prices. They're not linked at all to the base contracts. And that's why we've been able to surpass the domestic index.

And so in the next slide is the sale -- coal sales or sales of coal produced in the group. Here, we have that rule we always follow. Some of the coal is sold to external customers, some is used in the group's coking plants to have a fully diversified product portfolio. And as we track the data here, I won't quote the figures, but we can see that the differences quarter-on-quarter to external customers, but also during the first 9 months of the year, we have differences of 0.4% to 1%, and that's not really any type of volatility. This shows you that we have stable and sound long-term contracts, which we're able to execute during even tough times. And this is a stable leg that we can rely on in our group.

If we look at our internal customers, Mr. Cudny and Mr. Pazdziorko already talked about what happened in Przyjazn coking plant. It's down by some 10%. So 2 of our coking plants were at 100% of capacity. One wasn't operating at 100% because of the most recent events, but we've rebuilt the path and we're producing there -- in that coking plant, but it's on an emergency basis. And so we're not able to achieve the 100% production capacity this year immediately. So this is something that we have in our accounts, and we'll be able to make do with that by the end of the year.

And if we look at sales revenue to external customers, here I can only reiterate what I said. We see the quarter-on-quarter decline of some 9%, which is much less than what we saw on the international spot prices. Well, certain things haven't been disclosed or divulged in our sales results, and that's why our results are better than what you might see in the raw data. And if we compare the first 9 months of this year to the first 9 months of last year, we can see -- we have an increase of some 200%. And so I don't think we need to make any comments after the last conference.

And then we have an average selling price of coal to external customers. So it's down by some 14%. And if we look at the first 9 months of the year, of this year and last year, we had a very huge increase. This is a result of the negotiated contracts, and I don't think there's any special commentary needed here.

The next slide shows you the sales of coke. If we look at the difference between Q2 and Q3, we're down by some 15-odd percent. And if we look year-to-date, having in mind the first 9 months of the year, we're down by 9.3%. This is a compilation of 2 things. First, we have the technical or the engineering situation where we faced in [ Przyjazn ] coking plant, which is not able to run full-fledged operations. And then we have the market operation. But the market factors, above all, this is what's happening in the ports, that we're not able to warehouse all of the coke we'd like or the coke we like to warehouse there. So we have certain limitations here in terms of our ability to push product to the ports. And this is the main reason for these ratios to have downturned.

The average coke sales price quarter-on-quarter has down -- has fallen by 10.7%. Whereas if we look at the first 9 months of the year, this year compared to last year, we have a huge increase, and this is the same reason we've had with coal as well as with hydrocarbons.

And so then we have a compilation of sales of coke and hydrocarbons. It's all linked to the tonnages, and the prices that we've been able to command.

From Q2 to Q3, our revenue is down by 22%, whereas, as I reiterate, we have to have in mind the starting point. In Q2 level, in the history of the company, we've never seen such high prices in blast furnace coke or steel milling industry, generally speaking. So if you look at the first 9 months of this year and last year, we had a huge increase in sales revenue, and this is a compilation of all the other things that I've mentioned previously.

And the last slide, I'd like to say a few words about the inventory we have in the group. Let me begin with coal. For several quarters, we've been steadily bringing down our inventory. So we had 440,000 tonnes at the end of September. This is a level which I would say is a minimum inventory level. It would even be difficult to fulfill all of our obligations because this is spread across several mines. And we have coking coal and steam coal, which we need to be able to meet our obligations. It would be very difficult for us to go much below that level because of the operating quantities that we need to have in place in order to be able to make deliveries to the commercial power sector and the steel milling industry. So we're basically at the bare minimum of inventories in order to be able to fulfill our deliveries.

If we look at coke, the situation is different. We have an increase of some 36-odd percent, and this is a result of what happened in Q3. Certain things were starting to happen in Q2. Steel mills following what's happening with gas prices, without even looking at whether or not there's room to sell coke or not, they decided to ramp up their production -- in coke production in order to be able to extract coking gas. And so basically, this is something that has driven up the inventory across the European market. That's why we're no longer a green island, and certain things we have in infrastructure where we have certain infrastructure limitations, and so the company will look for other opportunities. We have some ideas for Q1 of next year, but I'll speak to that at our next conference, and then we have an inventory of some 300,000 tonnes. This is something that we can be -- we can store and it can be financed, and we'll be working on dealing with that at the beginning of next year. That's it from my side. Thank you very much.

[Edward Pazdziorko, executive]

So ladies and gentlemen, if we look at our investments, we can see the prices and the favorable market has informed our investments. So let me tell you about the CapEx across the group, net of consolidation effects, and this is done on an accrual basis.

In Q3 2022, we've had CapEx of nearly PLN 638 million compared to Q2 of this year. This is up by nearly 29% -- more than PLN 132 million (sic) [ PLN 142 million ] more. If we break that down by segment, the coal segment is the most important, then the coke segment. And all the other segments, we saw positive growth in CapEx across the board.

If we look at the first 9 months of the year, we can also say that the CapEx was up across the group. It was PLN 1.647 billion. And this is up over previous year -- in the first 9 months of the previous year by more than 40%. This is a difference of PLN 443 million (sic) [ PLN 473 million ]. So we're at 73% of planned execution. So in the coal segment, we had the biggest increase. It's more than PLN 280 million. The coke segment, it's the second most important, and it's up by some PLN 232 million and PLN 2.5 million in the other segments. I'll talk about these segments in the next part.

If we look at the CapEx in JSW on a stand-alone basis, so this is the leading company also on an accrual basis. So in Q3 and Q2, we can see that we had a CapEx of nearly PLN 462 million in Q3 quarter-on-quarter. This is an increase of more than 27%. So nearly PLN 98 million more across all of the types of industries. So purchase of finished capital assets, expenditures, own expensable mining pits and leases and investment construction. And so if we compare this year-to-date, we can say that CapEx in JSW, our leading company, was more than PLN 1.2 billion. And this is up -- first is the previous year by some 24.5%, which is nearly PLN 239 million.

What is worthy of mention here, our investments in investment construction, [ winning ] machines, transportation machines, suspended rails, the purchase of mechanized shields and major modernization of some of the sections, which will be utilized in subsequent longwall faces.

So the [ winning ] machines, we spent nearly PLN 60 million on them. If we look at the modernized sections and the purchases of new sections, we spent some PLN 51 million. We incurred substantial expenditures on expensable mining pits, PLN 71 million more than last year. And Expenditures related to leases for the -- we spent more than 9 -- PLN 20 million on [ mine wash plants. ]

And if we look at JSW KOKS, on an accrual basis, we had more than PLN 133 million (sic) [ PLN 143 million ] in CapEx versus Q2. This was an increase of nearly 38%. So an increase of some PLN 39 million. And the CapEx was to build the Radlin coking block. So we have spent some PLN 36 million.

And if we look at the summary of the first 9 months of the year, so the plan has been executed at nearly 79%. So it's PLN 343 million of spend compared to last year. This is up by some PLN 232 million. The main CapEx was to modernize coking battery #4 in the Przyjazn coking plant, then we signed a contract and executed the subject matter of that investment. And then we built the power block in Radlin, the power generation unit.

So the CapEx in the JSW Group, if we look at the repayment of lease payments in Q3, our CapEx was in excess of PLN 623 million. This was an increase over Q2 of 3%. So it's some PLN 18 million. If we look at the first 9 months of the year, we can see that we spent nearly PLN 1.77 billion compared to last year's year-to-date period of the first 9 months. It was up by some 33%. If we look at CapEx in JSW KOKS, we had similar levels. Thank you.

[Robert Ostrowski, executive]

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. So we've listened to some of the information about production details and market details. Now we can talk about the economic side of things, the things -- and the financial side of things during Q3. And I'll begin traditionally with some information about the core parameters, core financial parameters, so the financial highlights.

So we can begin with sales revenue. Year-to-date, as the CEO mentioned, he talked about the reasons for revenue constriction by 13.8% in Q3. So we had revenue in Q3 of PLN 5.146 billion. This is down from Q2, which is a record-breaking quarter. Let's remember that the results we're presenting in Q3, with reference to Q2, in some cases, we have a negative growth. Even so, these are record-breaking results that we're presenting to you. After -- at the end of the first 9 months of the year, the group's revenue is PLN 16 billion and slightly above. And when compared to last year and the first 9 months of the year, well, this is up by 137.5%.

The group's EBITDA in Q3, net of nonrecurring events, and they don't have as much of an impact, they're only symbolic, it's PLN 2.9 billion, and this is down by 25.2% from Q2. And for the first 9 months of the year, we have an EBITDA was up by 800% over what we saw last year, and that gives us the PLN 9.389 billion, almost 3.9 -- PLN 9.39 billion. And this is a result that we've never had before or were published before.

So the net working capital at the end of September of this year is PLN 1.061 billion, and it's down by 60.4% compared to the end of June. Even so, this is a result of several factors, and I think it's worthwhile to mention them at this time.

First, if we look at our short-term items, our current items on the balance sheet, so net of provisions, so it's PLN 1.4 billion. This is primarily because of the obligations to Closed-end Investment Fund, which is up -- we also have liabilities on current taxes, which is up by PLN 390 million. This is something that's grown through this period. And at the same time, our commercial payables are down by some PLN 361 million. On top of that, we have employee benefits, liabilities, down by PLN 58 million. In terms of current assets, which have fallen by nearly PLN 170 million, primarily as a result of trade receivables being down by 78 -- PLN 79 million. This is a result of lower prices, so we have lower receivables as a result. While at the same time, we have more cash and cash equivalents, and it's up by some PLN 700 million.

One comment here. To adjust the cash position during Q3, the company subscribed for investment certificates and fees for PLN 2 billion. And this is where we moved cash from cash position into other assets. And I'll talk about it later.

Now let me talk about the various important items in our financials. And so I'll look at changes in sales revenues.

So in Q2, we had PLN 5.9 billion in revenues. We have 3 fundamental components which have reduced revenue in Q3. The biggest negative factor is the impact of the coking coal price change. And Mr. Bartos explained that to a great extent. So this was sales revenue down by 13.8%, and that converts into PLN 573.6 million. Then we have the impact of coke sales volume, which is down by 15.8%. And that translates into revenue being down by PLN 350.3 million. The third important correction is the impact of coke price change. In Q3, price was down by 10.2%, and that translates into PLN 199.2 million. And we also had a difference of PLN 18 million in the negative because of some changes in volumes of another product sales.

Then we have steam coal sales. In Q3, we saw prices, which were up by some 93% compared to Q2, so this is PLN 246 million increase. This is the impact of steam coal sales price change. We also have increase in the sales of electricity and hydrocarbons, about PLN 46 million. And well, hydrocarbon sales were up by PLN 16 million. So that's a total of PLN 56.4 million. And then we have more than PLN 12 million increase. This is an impact of steam coal sales volume, and it's an 8.4% swing. Even so, as we compare quarter-on-quarter, we can see that the revenue is down by 13.8%. If we look at the cost side of things now. By nature -- so in Q3 of this year, our expenses are down by 10.9%. Employee benefits were down to the greatest extent by PLN 512.5 million. So it cost us down by some 12%. And as we've talked about multiple times at previous conferences, so the one-off bonus paid in JSW in terms of cash flow in July, well, it was paid in cash, but it was debited to the results in June. That's why Q3 looks better than Q2.

In addition, we've seen a smaller number of Saturdays and Sundays as working days, and this reduced our cost by some PLN 16 million. On the other hand, we've seen higher costs -- so it's -- it's up by some 24%. That's an increase of PLN 45.7 million.

And that's because we have a material cost up by PLN 110 million, primarily in JSW -- so this increase of PLN 67 million. And these are materials that we use in our operations. So we're doing tunneling works or corridor works when we're getting -- tearing down walls. We also have some inflationary effects. So one of the companies in the group, this is our JSW renovation company, its costs were up by some PLN 23 million. And this is something that's not subject to consolidation.

And one other cost that deserves our attention, which is the fact that we have electricity costs up by 23.2%, up by PLN 45.7 million. The same is true -- we have an increase of PLN 31 million. This is because electricity is up -- or the price is up by some PLN 96 per megawatt hour compared to Q2. On top of that, we have a higher volume of electricity being purchased. So we hit 244,000 megawatt hours. That's 11% more than in Q2.

In JSW KOKS, we've seen an increase in electricity consumption by some [ PLN 6 million. ] And here, we have a higher price or cost of electricity. It's inexpensive but the volume of electricity purchased is up some [ PLN 6 million, ] but the higher price, which is nearly PLN 200 per megawatt hour, which is some PLN 2 million in additional costs.

So now if we compare the first 3 quarters of this year, with the first 3 quarters of last year, the increase in costs is some 23.4%. To the greatest extent, we can see that in employee benefits, which is up by 22.3%, which is a difference of PLN 788 million. In terms of what I told you previously, we also see higher materials costs by PLN 448 million, and electricity costs are up by PLN 251 million. All of those items were discussed in terms of the reasons for their growth.

Now if we look at the bridge, and we can think about the differences between Q2 and Q3. There are 2 items that correct costs in a positive fashion. This is consumption of energy and consumption of materials. I talked about that. And then we have the minus, which is employee benefits, PLN 513 million. And so I talked about that. And so generally speaking, the cost in Q3 is PLN 2.865 billion.

So what we're tracking and we always report to is the mining cash cost and the cash conversion cost. So I'll begin with mining cash cost. So in Q2, we were at PLN 631 per tonne, and this includes one-off bonus to our employees. In Q3, we see a decrease in the cost to PLN 514 per tonne. So employee benefits are down by PLN 137.64. That adjusted downward the MCC. Then we have the impact of volume. So we had more production in Q3 than in Q2. So that generated a positive impact. Then I won't comment on taxes and charges because it was a minor issue.

What increased the mining cash cost?

Well, this is the consumption of materials and energy. So it's PLN 87 million in JSW in materials and energy. And I think, as I talked about that previously, then we saw external services costs being up by some PLN 18 million. And so on a unit basis, that converts into PLN 5.24 per tonne.

So if we look at the cash conversion cost in the coking, segment, here, we have more items, drill-down items. So here, we do not incorporate the coal stock. The biggest line item that contributed to the increase in cash conversion cost to PLN 268.71, so this is the impact of volume, which is a 12% difference, converting into PLN 28.94 per tonne. Then we have -- then we had some inflation -- and for transport costs and coal feedstock, or in net of that. So in total, the cash conversion cost as a result was up PLN 15.

Another item worthy of our attention is the consumption of energy. So this is an increase of PLN 6.8 million, more because of higher volume and prices. That means our CCC is up by PLN 7.91 per tonne. I would also mention that we have an increase of nearly PLN 4 per tonne because of the construction materials net of coal feedstock. So this is [ totaled -- ] renovation materials is 1.4 million.

The next slide, which summarizes mining cash cost and the cash conversion cost. So we can see that the mining cash cost is down by 18.5%. So this is -- the total mining cash cost was PLN 1.7 billion. And then if the first 9 months of the year, it's PLN 5.593 billion, and so it's up 17% over the first 9 months of last year.

So we have the mining cash cost is down because of expenses being down by PLN 111 and the volume impact is PLN 5.5 per tonne. Then we have the cash conversion cost for the coking segment.

Well, we can say with the first 9 months of the year, this is up by 36.2% to PLN 572.5 per tonne (sic) [ PLN 572.5 million ]. And then we have some negative factors. We have the -- PLN 28.94 is the impact of volume and the impact of expense is PLN 24.6.

The next slide illustrates the drivers of EBITDA in the overall group in Q3. And so here, we can see the impact of prices and volume. Well, this diminished EBITDA by PLN 333 million, then have the impact of coke sales volume and price, which is PLN 550 almost -- PLN 550 million. And then other sales gave a positive impact of PLN 56.4 million tonnes. Then the impact of costs by nature is PLN 350 million, and the impact of the results on other activities is nearly PLN 210 million. The other items are nonrecurring items -- aren't very important. And the difference is PLN 2.7 million, which was symbolic. So we can say that EBITDA, net of nonrecurring events, is PLN 2.9 billion.

So now if we break this down by segments. So in the coal segment, we have a negative impact of PLN 710 million. In the coke segment, it's a positive impact of PLN 78.6 million. The other segment is only a symbolic change of PLN 9.3 million, then we have consolidation, eliminations, which is PLN 345 million.

I was thinking about the 2 major reasons for this difference. I talked about that previously. The value is quite big. So to remind you, we're talking about unrealized profits on inventories. These are the inventories that JSW holds and sells to its coking plants, and we show a profit on the sales and then [indiscernible] during consolidation. And the correction is PLN 325 million-almost.The other thing is depreciation on fixed assets manufactured in the group, and this is a difference of PLN 27.5 million. So in total, the correction for these 2 items is PLN 345 million.

Now we can go on to some items from our balance sheet. And we'll begin with our working capital -- net working capital. We talked about that on the first slide. So we have PLN 1,061.5 billion. So we start with assets in total of PLN 25.1 billion. That's at the end of September, and we have some corrections for loans and borrowings.

So corrections for current liabilities without provisions was PLN 6.9 billion. So this is linked to what's happening with loans and borrowings, trade and other liabilities and other current liabilities. So trade and other liabilities coming at PLN 2.59 billion and other current liabilities of PLN 3.88 billion. These are other financial instruments. And what's happening with employee benefits and the Closed-end Investment Fund. And we have PLN 456 million of loans and borrowings, and that's why we have fixed capital of PLN 18.181 billion.

And so this fixed capital covers basically our property, plant and equipment worth PLN 9.9 billion, and then we have other noncurrent assets of PLN 7 billion. And in total, we have some intangible assets, and that means our net working capital is PLN 1.061 billion.

And we do the same calculation of net working capital, starting with our current assets. So we have inventories of PLN 746 million. Then we have trade and other receivables of PLN 1.9 billion. Then we have cash and cash equivalents of PLN 5.3 billion.

Then we have some corrections on the liabilities and equity side. So we have loans and borrowings of PLN 456 million. Then you have employee benefit liabilities of PLN 196 million. Lease liabilities of PLN 217 million. Then we have the liabilities to the Closed-End Investment Fund, which just consolidated, is PLN 2.1 billion, and we have trade and other liabilities of PLN 2.59 billion. And then other short-term liabilities, which is PLN 1.36 billion. So the accounts are consistent, and our net working capital was PLN 1.061 billion.

So if we look at these 2 graphs, which show basically our coverage ratios, we decided to show you this in 2 different scenarios, along with net debt, where we include FIZ, which is basically a type of liquid asset, where we show that in noncurrent assets, when we invested in investment certificates but in a business sense, this money is liquid. And we can recover the money that's been invested there very quickly.

So if we adjust for the FIZ, we have the 1.2 ratio. On an accounting basis, it's 0.97. But in Q3, we invested PLN 2 billion in the Closed-end Investment Fund. If we look at the net debt and we incorporate the money we have in the investment fund, we have negative net debt of PLN 6.78 billion. And if we do it on an accounting basis without adjusting for FIZ, we have net debt in the negative at PLN 3.5 billion.

One more slide, which shows you our cash flow in the group in Q3. So our cash at the end of June was PLN 4.546 billion. And then we have corrections. Profit before tax is PLN 2.65 billion. Depreciation and amortization of PLN 300 million. We have inventories -- it says here increased inventories, but it should be declining inventories. So it's PLN 38 million, then have a decrease in trade and other receivables of PLN 788 million. Then we have a decline or increase in trade and other liabilities -- so it's PLN 373 million, so we have to pay that. Then we have other operating cash flows of PLN 56 million. Then investing cash flows where we have 2 items here above all: the money that was invested in the investment fund, so PLN 2 billion; and then the disposal of PPE, which is some PLN 500 million. So the total impact is PLN 2.5 billion. This basically is a debt to our cash flow in Q3.

Then we have the financial flows, which is the repayment of loans and borrowing for PLN 112.5 million and above all, according to the amortization schedule announced by PFR, we paid down PLN 88.5 million per quarter from those 2 loans, plus we have the current down payments to banks. Then we have lease payments. We spent PLN 53 million for that in this period. Other financial flows and FX differences gave us a positive impact of PLN 84 million. And so the cash at the end of September is PLN 5.316 billion. And if we were to take into consideration the money we had in the FIZ, that was PLN 3.2 billion. So we would have PLN 8.57 billion in cash, including the investment fund investment. That's it in the financial area. So thank you for your attention.

[Tomasz Cudny, executive]

Ladies and gentlemen, during today's presentation, we're going to add another area in our presentation. It's not a new area, but it's something that we're adding to our presentation. We want to reflect on that. We're showing you basically our activities in ESG.

These are long-term measures and efforts. And in the management team, we said first that we have something to brag about. And as a company which espouses corporate social responsible practices in ESG, we want to show this information. Certainly, important events we will report immediately at the subsequent results conferences. But at least once a year, we're going to want to share with you the overall impact of our ESG activities.

If we look at the environment, this year, we launched our environmental strategy, and we've been pretty effective here. Let me speak about methane. And one of the milestones here is basically our carbon footprint in 2025, 2030 and some 84% of our carbon footprint is methane, but methane is also very important to us in terms of work safety, on top of economics, because we're extracting energy in the form of electricity and heat. This is all a matter of work safety. So we want to reduce methane emissions by 112 million metric meters (sic) [ cubic millimeters, ] so we have more than 400 cubic meters per year. So we're far along this path. And to confirm our efforts, a representative of the European Commission visited us, paid a visit, that's responsible for methane-related issues. And the activities we've taken were well received. And the information we provide has been appreciated.

But along with the scientific efforts, we received the highest grant in the mining industry. So it was PLN 11 million from the European Research Fund for Coal and Steel for this purpose. We're very pleased to be able to work with GIG, so the higher mining authority. And so the program is a dedicated program at Pniówek. We also have the rating in climate change, and this is something that obligates us to undertake certain efforts. So we've decided to join that and we want to report and participate on that matter and understand what we need to improve.

In terms of our corporate social responsibility, we can see the best things that we're doing through our foundation. And so our foundation is acting in accordance with this articles of association, both in our own environment, but we're going outside of our communities, outside of our region. And to the extent possible, we're trying to be present and be noticed as a sponsor, a caretaker, not only as a party that's generating mining damages, but as an entity that works together with communities and their populations. We're supporting children during summer holiday programs.

And if we look at corporate governance, we want to simplify the structure of the group. We want to eliminate certain areas. We want to cooperate, and we've done -- we've looked quite extensively at our innovations. Some of our innovations will be dealt with by our development management board member. And this will be done under a separate company, but under a separate office, but we have basically the backbone in place in terms of new sources of energy, new projects. We're going to focus our efforts.

So our energy office that we've set up to think about pursuing echo -- energy projects. And so let's go on to the next slide.

So our strategy, which we've implemented has to have some metrics attached to it, so KPIs. So we have a dozen or so items in many areas. We can say that we've been effective and we've made the right choices. And so if we have that green checkmark on the side, that means we're on a good path.

The yellow checkmarks show where we're falling a bit short. So in terms of the stable funding structure, so we're talking about accounting figures. We haven't adjusted the money in the investment fund. There are things for us to work on. We want to diminish our carbon footprint. There are a lot of things that we have to pay attention to. There are certain things that we can't let go, things that aren't green yet. We have to keep working on them. We're talking about having a second product leg. When we talk about hydrocarbons, we want to get up to some 8.4%. There's quite a bit of work for us to do. So we want to get to 10%, but we're at 8.4%. And so our technology division is saying that we should be assured that we're going to be able to secure our future production capabilities. There are some difficulties we face, but our colleague who is responsible for that division has been very effective in ensuring that we have the resource base in order to be able to do our work. And so we're at a very high level of performance.

So we need to go onto the last slide. There's just the third slide on the last slide. So we have a few things that we need to augment and improve. This is a result of some of the plans having not been fulfilled. We've mentioned this at a few of our conferences. We're talking about the events that took place in our coking plant, in our mines. So we have a benchmark here that we want to have a run rate of 14.5 million tonnes. This is something we continue to have in front of ourselves as a target. So I'd like to thank you for your attention, and now we can go on to the Q&A session.

[Unknown Attendee]

Thank you very much. We have received some questions during the conference. Some of the things are recurring. So we've grouped these questions for you.

What is the Management Board's estimate in terms of the ability to output -- to do output in 2023? Will it be flat? Or are we going in line with the targets in the strategy? Will we start to gain some output from Bzie-Debina in 2023?

[Edward Pazdziorko, executive]

Perhaps I'll respond to this question.

This question, well, the response to the question is somehow inherent in what we talked about: our production, our sales efforts. Basically, what our outlook is for output in 2023. So we can see that it's consistent with the strategy. But as we step backwards, we had some unfortunate events that transpired over the course of the year in April, and we can say that they basically put a hold on us in -- for this year and for the next 2 years. At the middle of this year, we reported that we continue to analyze certain subjects. And we see that impact on the output in mine since, so there are organizational issues, engineering issues.

So the potential output will be sustained at the level we have. We're thinking around 14 million tonnes, and there should be a trend upwards in the direction of the strategy. It's not something we can do immediately, but that's the trend, to move in that direction of the target. We want to remodel some of the preparatory works. But as the CEO mentioned, we have investments in the various levels of extraction. So this is the direction we're following to have no less than 14 million tonnes as our run rate. And we want to bump up to the strategic target level.

In terms of the question on Bzie-Debina, we mentioned in the report for mid-year -- we said, unfortunately, the geology and our assumptions, well, basically, in terms of the second long phase, we can see that there is shortcomings there. The advisers, and we looked at this longwall in terms of the concession -- the assumptions, and basically, the decision of the management and the acceptance of the Supervisory Board. Well, this is part of a triple section in mine in -- as of the beginning of 2023. So it will be part of an integrated mine.

This is a topic that has appeared previously in the company. And now we're matching it to the level we see in the deposit that's been accessed so far. And we want to have assurances that we're going to be able to start doing our longwalls operations still in 2023. We can say that we will have longwalls in line with what we're planning. We have 2 longwalls we want to set up and work is being done in that direction. We're doing the preparatory work in different sections and different parcels to ensure that we're going to be able to start operating there.

[Unknown Attendee]

What should we expect then in 2023 in terms of the mix of coking coal? What will be the next -- what percentage of the mix will be held by coking coal in production?

[Edward Pazdziorko, executive]

So we should maintain our direction of ramping up the percentage of coking coal in the overall production mix this year and next year. Had to be remodeled in terms of where we had the longwalls in. So the northern mines had a bigger role because of what happened in Pniówek and the other mines. So we want to bump it up above 80%. And this is not only because of new layers or levels, but because of our investments in our wash plants in Budryk mine and Knurów-Szczyglowice mine in order to be able to do greater flotation efforts to ensure that the yield will be higher. And this should bring us in line with the strategy. Thank you.

[Unknown Attendee]

We talked about coke production -- sorry, coke and coal production. Can we talk about coke production in 2023? Is it possible to maintain a stable level year-on-year even though -- or despite the most recent accident in the Przyjazn coking plant?

[Sebastian Bartos, executive]

Let me respond to that. It's in the interest of the group for all of our assets to operate at 100% of their capacity. So we have 3 coking plants. So Radlin, Przyjazn, and Jadwiga. And 2 of them are operating at 100% of capacity. Przyjazn, because of the incident that occurred, is operating on an emergency basis, even though we've set up some short-term measures. And this will continue to be the case until the end of the year and even at the beginning of next year. So from a technical point of view, it's not going to be possible for us in January or even in the first quarter of 2023 for that coking plant to achieve 100% operating capacity utilization. But after the investments are completed to rebuild, that path of delivery -- coal delivery path -- so I think beginning in Q2, we should be able to operate at 100% of capacity utilization.

[Unknown Attendee]

So another question. So more than 6 months have transpired since the events that took place in Pniówek and Zofiówka. Do we know anything about the finalization of the work and the report of the investigative commission about the reasons for the accidents in these mines and what are the implications for the production and mix at JSW in 2023 and 2024?

[Edward Pazdziorko, executive]

So ladies and gentlemen, so we know officially the events that took place, which have basically been buried in our memories, have been examined and are still being examined by the head of the Mining Authority. The first investigative commission looking at Zofiówka in Borynia. So Zofiówka -- in the Zofiówka section, has completed its work. And today, the information reported by the head of that commission -- well, the results are known. Well, the commission looking at the -- the reasons did not find any failure to perform obligations. Having in mind the techniques of running work and being compliant with the geological and mining law, and based on what we know. So the mining industry is aware all this was done. Nevertheless, there was a new phenomenon that appeared, and this was defined as geo and gas phenomenon.

And right now, well, in this region, we have greater rigor. And so now while fulfilling the recommendations of this commission, we've received the consent to continue mining efforts, provided that we meet certain prerequisites. And so the technical plan is being adjusted. And then we have some expert opinions from various institutes. And now we're in the process of preparing some studies. And after we complete those efforts, we'll put forward that draft plan for this commission to rule on. And after a positive opinion is given, after it's approved, then we'll be able to move on to the production efforts.

In terms of Pniówek, well, there were 2 different events. One of the events was gas dynamic related. In Pniówek, we had an explosion of methane and a fire that was linked to or caused by that explosion. As of today, that commission has not completed its investigation, so it would be difficult for me to speak to any final conclusions.

And now we continue to do work not only to monitor the threat but also thinking about the permissible work that can be done in such a situation after checking the atmosphere, which was dammed off and looking at the opinions of many experts and scientists in this area, especially if we think about the mine atmosphere.

As of today, we're preparing as a mine, a conclusion to the Director of the Mining Authority to dismantle the fire field. That's because this restricts the area that is dammed off. And this means that we could start doing the preparations to enter that space to extract our colleagues who stayed there. We'd like to remove them from that area. And to the extent possible, we'd like to return them to their families. And so the mine has planned to do this in a variety of stages. And so the specialists have given a positive opinion on that subject. As to when and how this will be done, this will depend on the decision rendered by the Director of the Mining Authority. Thank you very much.

[Unknown Attendee]

So one of the investors has said that the role of the management is to manage the company for the benefit of the shareholders. The company has great financial results, but the share price is falling. What can be done to reverse the share price decline?

[Robert Ostrowski, executive]

Perhaps I'll try to reflect on this very intriguing question. Well, the role of the management is to ensure that the assets that we hold are utilized to the best extent possible. And this is the task that we've been discharging. But in terms of the shares which are owned by shareholders, well, we don't have any impact over the things that are happening with shares for shareholders who -- these are investment funds from across the world -- to what extent they're discounting various risks, looking at the future of the company. We have a conflict in Ukraine. We have a vision of some sort of crisis. It's not clear how long it will last and to what extent this will affect our financials. And certainly, I think this is part of the risks that are attached to our picture.

We're trying to discharge our duties. In my opinion, I think we're discharging our duties correctly in terms of the operational management of the company, the financial management of the company. We're delivering above-average results and how shares are priced by investors to a very limited extent, we don't have -- we have an impact to a very limited extent apart from how well we manage the company.

[Unknown Attendee]

We have many questions from investors in terms of the good position that the company has. There are many questions about the ability to pay a dividend for 2022. And the question is, well, the CEO -- the CFO said in previous conferences that JSW cannot pay a dividend because of clauses in a contract with financial institutions and PFR. But a large portion of the current capitalization is cash. The question is, why is not paying a dividend favorable to JSW shareholders?

[Robert Ostrowski, executive]

Well, the final question is rather to the opposite. We've never said that not paying a dividend is favorable to shareholders of JSW. But -- but the question is about the limitations and the constrictions, so the restrictions. Because of those financial loans we have in place with PFR, these are liquidity and preferential loans. When those loans were taken out, well, those loans gave us the ability to continue operations. So we secured nearly PLN 1.2 billion in JSW and JSW KOKS to a small extent. Plus, we took out PLN 1.4 billion from our certificates in the Closed-end Fund.

We wouldn't have been able to survive that difficult time in terms of liquidity having in mind the very low coal prices at the time and the poor prospects at that time. It would have been impossible for us to secure funding elsewhere. And so having in mind what we said in our conferences, we'll have different types of burdens. We have to have in mind the liquidity. So we also have the corporate income tax for 2022, which will be paid in 2023. So we have higher liabilities, so increase in the quarter of PLN 340 million. So that's one item that will be a burden to the cash flow at the beginning of next year. We do not know what's going to happen in terms of the windfall tax. Right now, there's silence on the market, but we don't know in '22 or 2023. This applies not only to JSW but to many other entities.

So we need to face those type of financial burdens.

And then if we have to pay down -- if we were to pay down these 2 loans, one of the most beneficial loans we have in terms of their costs -- so the total burdens would be quite extensive to our financial position. So the decision on whether or not this condition could be met -- because it's public aid that's been notified to the EU -- it's very difficult to -- on that public aid principle where you can't pay out dividends.

Well, we're still talking with PFR. We have some plans to have another meeting with the management of PFR. And we'll touch upon the issue. Again, whether or not we're going to be able to find a solution to that issue, well, today as a management team, we're not able to tell you whether or not we'll find the solution for that question. Thank you very much.

[Unknown Attendee]

Because of time limitations, I'll read out the last question. Well, based on windfall tax -- so we know that the investor was asking about the windfall tax. The question is, if you refused to pay dividend, could this augment the taxes of windfall tax?

[Robert Ostrowski, executive]

Well, I think dividends at JSW -- well, windfall tax is not something that's addressed just to JSW but to a much bigger circle of entities. I don't think there's much connection between the windfall tax and the dividends. Thank you very much.

[Tomasz Cudny, executive]

Thank you very much for the questions that have been posed. So as I mention at the end of every conference, all of the questions that are addressed to JSW, well, those questions are sent to the Investor Relations department and we'll respond to all of these questions. So I'd like to thank all the persons who contributed to delivering these results, all of the employees in our group. I'd like to thank all of those persons who prepared the materials for today's conference. As always, it's been prepared at a very high level, and I assume that we won't go below this level in subsequent conferences.

Thank you very much for your work. Thank you very much.

[Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]