The IntelliNews Polish Metallurgy Sector Report offers an extensive summary of the Polish metallurgy sector for the year 2014. The report is segmented into primary and fabricated metal manufacturing as well as steel distribution and highlights leading players in the industry, including ArcelorMittal and KGHM. It includes a complete coverage of the latest developments, trends and corporate news, accompanied by thorough statistics and comments.

Poland is the biggest steel producer in the CEE region and the sixth biggest in the EU, accounting for about 5% of the bloc’s total crude steel output. The market is dominated by global steel giant ArcelorMittal who control about 70% of the country’s steel producing capacity but only accounts for about 50% of the annual output due to the idling of several blast furnaces amid tough market conditions.

After two years of contraction, Poland’s steel industry is widely expected to stabilise this year and to show a substantial improvement in 2015, matching global industry trends. The predicted recovery of the sector is based mainly on an expected new stream of EU funds coming to Poland and boosting infrastructure spending, while projects in the fields of energy and environmental protection and an anticipated output growth in the auto manufacturing sector will also help boost demand for steel.

Poland’s copper sector is dominated by 32% state-owned KGHM, which is the sole domestic copper mining company and the second biggest copper producer in Europe. While KGHM has significant development projects in Chile and Canada, it has no major expansion plans for Poland in view of a trend for falling ore grades and high taxes. Hence, Poland’s copper production is expected to remain largely flat in the coming years.

The major challenges for Poland’s metallurgy include high energy costs, which make it hard for Polish companies to compete with eastern countries like China, Russia, Ukraine and Turkey which are able to produce at lower prices as well as increasingly stringent environmental regulations in the EU which require significant investments. 

Key Points:

• The metallurgical sector represents a significant part of Poland’s industry of which the steel industry accounts for more than 90% of the country’ metallurgical output.

• The country’s crude steel output fell 5.0% year on year to 7.95 million metric tonnes in 2013.

• The Polish Steel Association has forecast domestic steel consumption to grow by some 4.0% to 5.0% in 2014.

• Copper production makes about 7% of the total metallurgical output.

• The copper industry has been suffering from falling copper prices, which are not expected to rebound in the near term.