Dariusz Bogdan, deputy minister of economy, believes that in order to stop the decrease in coal production in Poland, mines need to invest as much as PLN 19.5bn till the year 2015.
“Poland’s electric and energy sectors will be based on coal”, the deputy minister said.
According to the most recent data, the production of energy and coke coal falls every month. At the end of July, it was over 2.6m tons lower than a year earlier. In 2007, coal production dropped by 7m tons. Winter is upcoming and the demand will grow. Coke plants representatives worry already because limited deliveries or no deliveries at all may destroy coke batteries while losses will amount to billions of zloty.
According to the data from the Ministry of Economy, coal companies plan to invest PLN 6.6bn in 20 mines in the years 2009-2010. The problem is where they will take money from. Privatization on the WSE has been discussed for a longer time already but for sure, neither Bogdanka nor KHW mines will be listed this year. According to Waldemar Pawlak, the deputy Prime Minister, coal mines could issue bonds. They could also get state-aid of about PLN 860m. If so, the European Commission will have to approve of the program.
(PLN 1 = EUR 0.288)