Poland reduced steel production by 14.7% m/m in July

Polish steel companies reduced steel production by 14.7% month-on-month in July 2025, while year-on-year production increased by 1.9% to 639,000 tons. This puts the country in 20th place in the WorldSteel global ranking of steel producers.

In January-July, Polish steelmakers produced 4.51 million tons of steel, which is 6.6% more than in the same period of 2024. The recovery of Poland’s metallurgical complex is facilitated by the restart of an important enterprise, Huta Częstochowa. Since February 3, the plant has been operating at full capacity after more than a year of downtime.

At the same time, ArcelorMittal Poland, the country’s largest steel producer, announced a temporary shutdown of blast furnace No. 3 at its plant in Dąbrowa Górnicza. The manufacturer claims to have lost profitability due to excess imports and high energy prices and CO2 emissions.

Polish steelmakers’ unions have announced their intention to intensify protests in the fall due to the lack of real support for the industry from the government. Although the Ministry of Industry has set up a working group and presented an “Action Plan for the Sustainable Development of the Steel Industry,” activists consider the document to be empty and ineffective. Previous promises of state aid for ArcelorMittal or Węglokoks group companies have not been backed up with specific funding.

Trade unions are demanding a single electricity rate of €60 per MWh for all energy-intensive industries in the EU, reform of the compensation system, protection of the domestic market from steel imports from countries without a “green course,” and reform of the scrap trade.

Overall, EU steel companies reduced steel production by 7% y/y in July 2025 – to 10.2 million tonnes, and by 3.8% y/y in January-July – to 75.6 million tonnes.

In 2024, Poland increased steel production by 10.1% compared to 2023, from 6.4 million tons to 7.1 million tons. The country ranked 25th in the World Steel global ranking of steel-producing countries (71).

The metallurgical industry has moved away from the downward trend that had been ongoing since 2022, specifically:

• 2020 – 7.86 million tons;
• 2021 – 8.45 million tons;
• 2022 – 7.41 million tons;
• 2023 – 6.43 million tons.

There are six steel enterprises in Poland, including ArcelorMittal Warszawa (capacity of 0.75 million tons of steel per year), Celsa Huta Ostrowiec (0.9 million tons/year), Huta Czestochowa (0.84 million tons/year), CMC Zawiercie (1.7 million tons/year), ArcelorMittal Dąbrowa Górnicza (5 million tons/year), and Ferrostal Labedy Gliwice (0.5 million tons/year).