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Steel production

In January-April, the country's steelmakers reduced steel production by 10.8% y/y

In April 2023, steel enterprises of Poland reduced steel production by 26% compared to the previous month – to 670 thousand tons. WorldSteel Association’s data informs about it.

Annually, steel production in Poland decreased by 3.3% as of April 2023.

In January-April 2023, Polish steelmakers produced 2.49 million tons of steel. This is 10.8% less compared to the same period in 2022.

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 global ranking of WorldSteel steel producers.

In general, steel production in the countries of the European Union in April 2023 fell by 11.7% compared to April last year – to 11.1 million tons. In January-April 2023, 44.4 million tons of steel were produced in the EU, which is 10.2% less y/y.

Steel production in Poland in 2023

As GMK Center reported earlier, in January 2023 ArcelorMittal Poland launched blast furnace №3 at the plant in Dąbrowa Górnicza. It has been idle since September 2022. The reasons were a slowdown in economic activity in Europe, a decrease in demand on the EU market and an increase in imports from outside the European Union, as well as an increase in energy prices.

At the same time, the company previously reported that at the end of March blast furnace №2 will be stopped plant in Dąbrowa Górnicza for maintenance. More than 720 million zlotys ($167 million) will be allocated to the capital modernization of the unit, which will last three months.

As reported by GMK Center, according to the results of 2022 European metallurgists reduced steel production by 10.5% compared to 2021 – to 136.7 million tons. In general, global steel output last year fell by 4.3% y/y. – up to 1.831 billion tons.

During the second half of 2022, 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. According to Fastmarkets estimates, at the end of 2022, about 14-15 million tons of annual steel capacities were stopped in Europe.

As early as early 2023, EU steelmakers began restarting idled capacity as apparent steel demand and product prices began to rise and energy costs declined and stabilized. In addition, the industry expects further growth in demand for steel products.