ArcelorMittal Poland will restart its Krakow blast furnace next month so that the company can deliver slabs to its steelworks in Ghent, Belgium.
The company shut down the blast furnace in November 2019 because of escalating costs and a languid market, announcing it would only be temporarily idled.
In a statement, Marc De Pauw, ArcelorMittal Poland’s chief executive officer, said a blast furnace reline at the Ghent plant impelled the company to restart its Krakow furnace.
Seventy percent of Poland’s entire production capacity comes from ArcelorMittal Poland, which has five steelworks in the country and employs 11,000 workers, with another 3,000 who work for subsidiaries. ArcelorMittal Poland also has a coke plant in the country, which has Europe’s highest production.