London — Poland is on track to post fifth consecutive year of apparent steel consumption growth in 2018, Stefan Dzienniak, director of Polish steel federation HIPH, told S&P Global Platts this week.
After the first half of the year, Polish apparent steel consumption reached 7.5 million mt, up 10% on the year.
A mild winter and dry spring meant that the usual seasonal slowdown in steel consumption was much less prominent this year.
The country's flat and long steel consumption was respectively 4.1 million and 2.8 million mt, both up by 500,000 mt on the year. Consumption of tubular products was stable at 600,000 mt.
Consumption growth in the second half of the year was likely to slow down but the full-year result should nevertheless be strong, with around 14 million mt steel expected to be consumed, compared with 13.5 million mt in 2017, Dzienniak estimated.
Steel usage increase coincided with a 10% rise in steel imports in H1 from other EU member states and third countries. Poland imported 3.6 million mt of flat products and 1.4 million mt of long products. At the same time, steel exports contracted 5% on the year.
Notably, imports of semi products, particularly slabs, rose sharply to 360,000 mt in H1 due to the restart of a local re-roller WBG Batory as well as additional purchases by the plate mill ISD Huta Czestochowa.
Dzienniak noted that following the imposition of tariffs on Turkey by the US, Turkish imports, not significant in previous years, were increasingly visible in Poland. India was also appearing as another new source of steel for local buyers.
H1 crude steel production registered in Poland grew 2% on the year to 5.22 million mt. Full-year output should be around 10 million mt, less than the 10.3 million in 2017 due to 40 days of repair work at the 2.2 million mt/year No.2 blast furnace at ArcelorMittal Dabrowa Gornicza steelworks during the summer.
