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ArcelorMittal Poland has announced that it will permanently close the hot zone at its Krakow plant. The decision was made due to high energy costs and declining demand, which was due to the coronavirus pandemic and cheap imports into the EU. “The Covid-19 pandemic has had unprecedented consequences for the European steel industry. Although demand in recent weeks has picked up a bit, mainly driven by inventory corrections, it is still considerably below pre-Covid levels.” said Sanjay Samaddar, CEO of ArcelorMittal Poland. “This means that we have to make some very difficult decisions, which will unfortunately mean the closure of the blast furnace and the steel workshop in Krakow,” he added.
The blast furnace was stopped in November last year due to reduced demand and high import volumes to the EU. In March, that is, after the pandemic outbreak, ArcelorMittal indefinitely postponed the restart of the plant.
ArcelorMittal noted that there is little hope that the steel market will recover in the short term, noting that, as a result, the company had to “take permanent measures to adapt to this lower demand.”
The coking plant at the ArcelorMittal Poland branch in Krakow will continue to operate, as will subsequent operations (two rolling mills, the hot-dip galvanizing line and the new organic coating line), in which the company has invested 500 million PLN (€ 110 million) during the last five years. The plant employs 650 workers.
ArcelorMittal Poland owns two other blast furnaces in Poland, at the Dabrowa Gornicza plant, with a total capacity of approximately 6 million metric tons. The company made the decision to concentrate hot metal production at its two blast furnaces at Dabrowa Gornicza to improve its cost competitiveness. “The slabs for the Krakow rolling mills will come mainly from the Dabrowa Gornicza steelworks, where the company will invest 180 million zlotys (40 million euros) in bottleneck elimination projects and produce special grades for further processing in grain-oriented steel, “the company added.
