Revenues of the mining company OKD for the first nine months of this year reached 5.5 billion crowns. This is more than the original plan for the whole of 2021. It achieved this thanks to higher mining and rising coal prices. This was announced today by OKD spokeswoman Naďa Chattová.
The company mined almost 1.6 million tons of coal by the end of September. She thus exceeded her business plan by more than ten percent. It plans to mine a total of 1.99 million tons of coal by the end of the year.
According to Vanda Staňková, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors, OKD is currently achieving good results thanks to three factors. “We are significantly reducing costs, achieving maximum results in coal mining, and in recent months this is also due to a significant increase in coal prices,” said Staňková.
Prices of premium coking coal rose by up to 300 percent year on year. “During 2020, the spot prices of premium coking coal were slightly above $ 100. At present, they reach up to $ 400 per tonne. The significant increase in spot prices subsequently has a positive effect on the achievable sales prices of our types of coal,” said Staňková.
OKD supplies the most coal to customers in the Moravian-Silesian Region, but also has customers in Slovakia, Poland and Austria. OKD Executive Director Radim Tabášek stated that the company has already sold out coal for this year and is now working on stores for 2022.
“OKD is still working with a plan to end active coal mining by the end of 2022 and with the extraction of today’s economically recoverable reserves by that date,” Chattová said.
OKD is the only producer of hard coal in the Czech Republic. But mining is gradually coming to an end, because it does not pay off. OKD only mines in the ČSM Mine in the Karviná region. More than 3,500 people work there. The company has been owned by the state since 2018 through Prisko.