Sales Forecasting and Coal Mining Planning in the Context of Hard Coal Production Strategies

Polish energy security is based mainly on a coal. Such dependency will be still maintained for several years. It is therefore necessary to improve the economic situation of polish mining companies. The mining companies in Poland are operating under tremendous uncertainty of turbulent environment. The article presents used by the authors methods to facilitate the creation and selection of optimal production strategy. These are scenario planning, forecasting and linear programming, which allow the simulation of company operations in the future. The authors suggest the most successful and optimal forecasting models for the Polish mining industry, as well as factors affecting the demand for hard coal in Poland. The manuscript presents also possible to apply coal production strategies and the method of evaluation and selection of optimal strategy in the difficult conditions of Polish mining companies environment. This makes it possible to take a decision burdened with minor errors and less risk.