Posted on 25 Jul 2025
ArcelorMittal Poland (AMP) plans to idle blast furnace no.3 at its Dabrowa Gornicza works due to “extremely difficult” and still worsening market conditions, it says. Preparations have already begun, with the stoppage set to start in September.
The stoppage will leave AMP with one functioning blast furnace, no.2. The firm says it will closely monitor market developments and restart BF3 when conditions allow. It aims to redeploy affected workers to other AMP units.
BF3 was last idled in October 2022, due to weak market conditions, and then restarted in January 2023.
High energy prices, the burden of CO2 emissions allowance costs on EU mills, and insufficient trade defence mechanisms are making business difficult and seeing Poland import large tonnages of low-priced steel, says AMP chief executive Wojciech Koszuta. Moreover, prices have dropped significantly in the last three months.
“All these factors have negatively impacted our margins, meaning that maintaining the operation of two blast furnaces is economically unjustified under these circumstances,” he notes in a statement sent to Kallanish.
The firm cites Polish Steel Association – HIPH – calculations that imports now cover 80% of Polish steel consumption, rising to 95% for flat products.
“In the flat products segment, the volume of steel imported from Ukraine and Serbia is growing rapidly, but deliveries have also appeared from destinations such as Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and Taiwan," says Tomasz Plaskura, chief marketing officer East Europe – ArcelorMittal Europe Flat Products.
AMP said last month it recognises the need to decarbonise but, amid the high costs of transitioning to new technologies and pressure from low-priced steel imports, European steelmakers cannot bear the costs of this process alone (see Kallanish passim). This followed reports it was in talks with the Polish government over PLN 1 billion ($268.5 million) in state aid for the modernisation of a blast furnace at Dabrowa Gornicza.
AMP’s crude steel production rebounded 22% on-year in 2024 to 3.8 million tonnes, following a very weak 2023.
Source:Kallanish
