ArcelorMittal Poland exports decline in 2018

ArcelorMittal Poland (AMP)’s steel exports declined -13% on-year in 2018 to 2.19 million tonnes, while coke exports fell -12% to 1.9mt, Kallanish learns from Poland’s largest steelmaker.

Crude steel output dropped -6% last year to 5.27mt (see Kallanish passim), while coke production was down -4% to 4.34mt.

Poland overall produced 10.2mt of crude steel in 2018 and consumed 14.9mt. The construction industry accounted for 43% of steel use. Polish steel sector sales reached PLN 35.7 billion ($9.1 billion), or 3% of industrial output, with exports accounting for half of this amount, AMP says in a report.

Among AMP’s investments in 2018 were the first stage of the Sosnowiec plant’s wire rod mill revamp (see Kallanish passim). Besides increasing production capacity from 700,000 tonnes/year to 800,000 t/y, this will increase product quality. The firm also added an organic coating section to galvanizing line no.2 at the Krakow plant’s cold rolling mill.

In July 2019 AMP postponed the idling it had announced in May of the hot-end at its Krakow steelworks in order to re-evaluate its position (see Kallanish passim).

ArcelorMittal’s sales in Poland slumped -12% on-year in the first half of 2019 to $2.11 billion. The country thus slipped to seventh place in the list of the world’s largest steelmaker’s highest-earning countries after leaping to fourth in full-year 2018 with a 21% on-year sales surge. However, since ArcelorMittal’s sale to Liberty of its Ostrava and Galati mills, AMP has become the focal point of the steelmaker in Central and Eastern Europe.