Poland increased steel production by 64% m/m in July

In July 2023, metallurgical enterprises of Poland increased steel production by 64% compared to the previous month – up to 405 thousand tons. This is evidenced by data World Steel Association.

Year-on-year, steel production in Poland decreased by 35.4% in July 2023.

In January-July 2023, Polish metallurgists smelted 3.8 million tons of steel. This is 20.8% less compared to the same period in 2022.

The average monthly steel production in Poland in January-July amounted to 543.1 thousand tons, while for the same period in 2022 the figure was at the level of 685.7 thousand tons (-20.79% y/y).

There are 10 metallurgical enterprises in Poland, including two electric arc plants – in Krakow (annual capacity of 2.6 million tons of finished products) and Dąbrowa-Gornicza (5 million tons), and 8 blast furnaces – Chorzow (145 thousand tons), Częstochowa ( 800 thousand tons), Gliwice (250 thousand tons), Katowice (65 thousand tons), Ostrowiec (900 thousand tons), Stalowa Wola (240 thousand tons), Warsawa (750 thousand tons), Zawiercie (1 .34 million tons).

In 2022, Poland reduced steel production by 8.6% compared to 2021 – to 7.73 million tons. Thus, the country took 22nd place in the WorldSteel global ranking of steel producers.

In general, steel production in the EU countries in July 2023 fell by 7.1% compared to July last year, to 10.3 million tons. In January-July this year, 76.7 million tons of steel were produced in the EU, which is 10.3% less y/y.

The decline in steel production is likely due to weak demand for finished products, as well as unfavorable pricing conditions. High production costs of steelmakers do not allow reducing steel prices to levels that would be favorable for buyers, so the demand for domestic products is low. At the same time, imported steel is in demand due to lower prices.

As GMK Center reported earlier, in 2022 European steelmakers reduced steel production by 10.5% compared to 2021 – to 136.7 million tons. Overall, global steel output fell 4.3% y/y last year – to 1.831 billion tons.