EU: Poland’s coal production drops 4% m-o-m in Aug’26

• Poland’s coal output falls 4.3% m-o-m to 6.02 mnt in August
• Rising mining costs threaten production growth despite 1.2% y-o-y rise

Poland’s production of hard coal and lignite reached 6.02 million tonnes in August, down 4.3% from July and marking the third straight on-month decline, according to the latest data from the Central Statistical Office of Poland (CSOP).

Compared with the year-ago level however, the August volume was still higher by 2.1%, mainly reflecting the low comparison basis of August last year, when the combined 5.9 million tonnes of hard coal and lignite production was among the lowest monthly levels in CSOP’s historical data since 2018.

Last month, Poland’s output of hard coal (including coking and thermal coal types) stood at 3.22 million tonnes, down 6.1% on month but up 4.8% on year. Lignite output was put at 2.8 million tonnes, down 2% on month but basically flat from the previous year, according to the CSOP’s breakdown data.

Over January-August, Poland’s cumulative production of hard coal and lignite totalled 52.98 million tonnes, up 1.2% from the same period of last year. Among the total, hard coal and lignite made up 27.85 million tonnes and 25.14 million tonnes respectively, with the former up 2.4% and the latter flat on year, according to the data.

However, some industry experts in Poland had doubted whether the on-year growth is sustainable. Andrzej Robaszewski, research director for fiscal policy and sustainable development at Warsaw-based independent research institute CASE, pointed to deteriorating mining conditions in Poland.

As remaining coal seams go deeper underground, higher extraction and labour costs could weigh on companies’ finances and affect production, Robaszewski noted in an interview with Polish news outlet Rzeczpospolita.

Over the first eight months of the year, Poland also produced 4.73 million tonnes of coke for all uses, down 5.4% from the previous year. In August alone, the country’s coke production stood at 629,300 tonnes, down 0.7% on month and 7.4% on year.

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