ArcelorMittal will shut down one of the blast furnaces at the plant in Poland at the end of September 2022

ArcelorMittal, one of the world’s largest steel producers, will shut down BF3 at its plant in Dombrów-Hurnych in Poland at the end of September 2022. The furnace capacity is 2.2 million tons/year. ArgusMedia reports about it.

This step is due to the drop in demand for steel and the rise in energy prices.

“We are observing a decrease in demand, which leads to an order book below the minimum working point of 2 blast furnaces,” ArcelorMittal Poland chief executive Frederik Van De Velde said.

According to Argus estimates, the total capacity of the two remaining blast furnaces of the ArcelorMittal plant in Dombrova-Gurnych is 2.3 million tons/year.

As the company’s statement stated, the reduction in production is caused by several factors. In particular, this is a slowdown in economic activity in Europe, a decrease in customer inventories, an increase in imports from outside the EU, and an increase in gas and electricity prices. Also in 2022, price of CO2 allowances reached a record level.

Since the beginning of September 2022, ArcelorMittal has already announced the future shutdown of blast furnaces at several European plants. Thus, at the end of September 2022, the corporation plans to stop one of the three blast furnaces at the plant in Bremen (Germany), the capacity of which reaches 1.2 million tons of pig iron per year. ArcelorMittal also plans to shut down one of the blast furnaces at the plant in Asturias (Spain).

ArcelorMittal Dunkirk plans to operate only one blast furnace out of three from October 2022 – the other two were stopped earlier.

As GMK Center reported earlier, Ascometal Swiss Steel plans to stop plants in the cities of Fosse-sur-Mer and Agondange in November and December of this year.