A strike by workers at Polish coking coal producer Jastrzebska Spolka Weglowa (JSW) has cut production by 530,000 mt and sales by 445,000 mt, company officials said Monday.
"In relation to the technical-economic plan, in the period from the beginning of the year to the end of March, the estimated loss of revenues as a result of the strike amounts to Zloty 130 million ($35.2 million)," deputy CEO Robert Kozlowski told a news conference.
JSW has been unable to fulfill some of its supply contracts as a result of the strike, which started in the company's six mines on January 28 in a dispute over the management's cost-cutting plan.
"Customers are worried, we have phone calls and letters. Many coking plants that are supplied by us have taken action and started buying from other suppliers," Grzegorz Czornik, another deputy CEO, said.
He said he did not think that major customer ArcelorMittal would abandon JSW as a supplier.
JSW's own coking plants have reduced production by 40%-50% as a result of the strike.
JSW CEO Jaroslaw Zagorowski again warned the company faced losing financial liquidity if workers did not return to work soon.
"If there is no production in the company, and reduced sales, the threat of collapse exists. It is not frightening. Today we can manage, we have liquidity but we won't be able to maintain it indefinitely," he said.
Union leaders are demanding Zagorowski's dismissal.
They oppose management's plans to introduce a cost-cutting program to maintain liquidity in the face of falling coking coal prices.
JSW recorded a net loss of Zloty 302.6 million in the first three quarters of 2014.
The strike is costing the company about Zloty 30 million per day in lost income, a company spokeswoman has said.
In the first three quarters of 2014 JSW produced 9.6 million mt of coal, 6.931 million mt or 72% of which was coking coal and the remainder or 2.669 million mt was thermal coal.
Source: Platts
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