Steel consumption in Poland fell by 11% y/y in 2023

Steel consumed fell to a multi-year low of 11.8 million tons

In 2023, steel consumption in Poland decreased by 11% compared to 2022, to 11.8 million tons, a multi-year low. The main decline is in long products due to the crisis in the construction industry. Kallanish reports this with reference to data from the Polish Union of Steel Distributors (PUDS).

«In only 4 months of 2023, steel consumption exceeded 1 million tons, compared to 7 months in 2022 and 12 months in 2021. Apparent consumption of rebar fell by 24% y/y and wire rod – by 34% y/y,» said Ywona Dybal, President of PUDS.

Poland’s figures are almost equal to the drop in steel consumption in the European Union (-10% y/y) and Germany (13.7% y/y).

The Polish Steel Industry Association (HIPH) predicts that steel consumption in the country will recover by 10% in 2024 to 13 million tons, and by another 11% in 2025 – to 14.4 million tons.

At the same time, steel production in Poland fell by 13% y/y – to 6.5 million tons last year. Compared to 2018, the figure fell by 36%. Polish capacity utilization was 65%.

In December 2023, the production of long products in Poland, which traditionally prevails over flat products, equalized, which happened for the first time in history, Dybal added. At the same time, sales volumes of Polish distributors in 2023 fell by 7.8% y/y, but inventories increased by 2.4%.

As GMK Center reported earlier, Poland reduced imports of rolled steel from third countries by 14% in 2023 compared to 2022, to 1.77 million tons. Last year, steel exports from Poland increased by 15.2% compared to 2022, to 318.8 thousand tons.

There are 6 steel mills in Poland, including ArcelorMittal Warszawa (capacity of 0.75 million tons of steel per year), Celsa Huta Ostrowiec (0, 9 million tons per year), Liberty Czestochowa (0.84 million tons per year), CMC Zawiercie (1.7 million tons per year), ArcelorMittal Dąbrowa Górnicza (5 million tons per year), and Ferrostal Labedy Gliwice (0.5 million tons per year). The total steel production capacity of the plants reaches 9.69 million tons per year.