Poland's imports of thermal coal have risen by 80 percent in one year to 6.6 million tonnes, in order to replenish stocks after, particularly cold winter months, according to Eurostat data. Thermal coal refers to coal used for combustion.
But the increase in imports would be smaller in the second half of 2018, as stocks were "quite full right now," said independent coal analyst Piotr Matuszak.
"They really imported heavily in the first half, so I expect a slowdown now," he added.
However, the Polish port capacity was insufficient to meet the current domestic demand for imports, said a commercial director at a major logistics company.
There were also too few trains to master the handling of the required volumes, Matuszak added.
- Poland's recovery levels at domestic mines stagnated in 2018, said the energy trader Xavier De Vos at the Coaltrans conference in June said.
Production declined by 4 percent month to month to 5.1 million tonnes in Polish, according to data from the government procurement agency ARP. They dropped 2.5 percent in the first seven months of this year to 37 million tonnes, while the stocks at the country's mines decreased by 5 percent in July to 2.1 million tonnes. Last year, Poland imported 10.6 million tonnes of thermal coal.
Source: Montel
