A report on the opportunities and challenges of transforming Poland’s steel sector. The transformation of the steel industry will be one of the largest parts of the cost of decarbonizing Polish industry by mid-century.

Over the past few years, the gap between the needs of the Polish economy and Poland’s declining steel production has been growing. Polish construction and manufacturing industries are experiencing rapid growth, leaving the steel sector behind. A factor favoring the modernization and development of the steel sector in Poland is the growing availability of steel scrap. It is a key raw material for secondary smelting of steel in electric arc furnaces (EAFs). Poland is now a net exporter of it, which means that the potential for increasing domestic steel production based on this technology is high. It is estimated that this will enable a potential balance sheet improvement of 20%-30%.

The future of Poland’s steel industry therefore depends both on investments to increase its production capacity and to enable steel production in a decarbonized manner. Sustainable development of the steel sector requires a combination of traditional production methods and modern low-carbon solutions.