By mid-January 2023, PGE Group and Węglokoks had imported a total of more than 10.7 million tonnes of hard coal into Poland. More than 3 million tonnes more will be imported by the end of April, according to information from the two companies responsible for securing imported coal fuel.

The largest importer is PGE Group’s PGE Paliwa, which by mid-January had imported 8 million tonnes of coal into Poland.

“By the end of the heating season, i.e. by April this year, it will be 10 million tonnes. The coal imported by the PGE Group is of high quality and is intended for households, but also for companies, the heating sector and the power industry”, says PGE Group.

The second importer, the Katowice-based company Węglokoks, had imported around 2 million 750 thousand tonnes of coal to Poland by mid-January, while by the end of April this amount will increase by another 1 million 50 thousand tonnes. The last ship with contracted coal is expected to arrive in Poland in the first half of March.

Considering statistical data and data from state-owned companies, more than 14.5 million tonnes of power coal reached Poland in January-December 2022. In comparison, in 2021, 9.3 million tonnes were imported in January-December, so more than 5.2 million tonnes of coal were imported in 2022.

In Poland, imported coal is sorted into the appropriate size fractions: eco- pea, nut or culm, ensuring the right amount of coal for the needs of all customers, including households. The quality of imported coal is verified each time by independent laboratories.

Coal imports by the two companies controlled by the State Treasury are the result of the Russian aggression against Ukraine and the introduction of an embargo on coal from Russia. Fuel imported from the east has been replaced by sea imports from countries where coal is most similar in parameters to that previously available in Poland.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński