Poland reduced steel production by 13.7% m/m in November 2022

In November 2022, the steel enterprises of Poland reduced steel production by 13.7% compared to the previous month – to 531 thousand tons. This is evidenced by Worldsteel Association’s data.

Steel production in Poland decreased by 8.8% y/y as of November 2022.

In January-November 2022, Polish steelmakers smelted 7.15 million tons of steel. This is 7.9% less compared to the same period in 2021.

In 2021, Poland increased its steel production by 6.5% compared to 2020 – up to 8.4 million tons. Thus, the country took 22nd place in the WorldSteel global ranking of steel producers.

In general, steel production in the countries of the European Union in November 2022 fell by 17.9% compared to November last year – to 10.5 million tons. In January-November 2022, the indicator decreased by 10.1% y/y – to 127.4 million tons.

As GMK Center reported earlier, European steelmakers are massively reducing or stopping production against the background of rising electricity tariffs. At the same time, the European market is filled with imported steel products, which attract consumers by lower prices than local ones. Countries that supply cheap steel to the EU market do not pay emissions taxes and receive cheaper electricity than European producers. Because of this, the demand for European rolled steel fell, and production costs rose sharply.

According to Fastmarkets, since September 2022, about 14-15 million tons of annual steel capacities have already been stopped in Europe. Among those stopped Polish steel capacity, there is a blast furnace №3 of ArcelorMittal at the plant in Dombrova-Gurnych. The unit is capable of producing 2.2 million tons of steel per year. In general, the leading steel producer in Europe, ArcelorMittal, has already stopped about 7 million tons of annual capacity.