Arcelormittal Seeks More Competitive Steel Raw Materials for Central, Eastern Europe

From: www.custeel.com   2015-05-29 09:34:59.0

Steel group ArcelorMittal is seeking more competitive raw material supplies in Eastern and Central Europe for its business to thrive.

It wants the Polish and Czech coal mining companies and the logistics supply chain “to improve productivity and quality of coals in the region,” Rajendra Pathak, chief procurement officer for ArcelorMittal’s regional division covering Poland and Central Europe, told the Coaltrans Poland conference in Sopot Tuesday.

Eyeing spot benchmark prices outside the region, and already procuring coals from the US and Australia for the group’s coke ovens, Pathak stressed the need to lower costs to help cope with weak steel prices.

There is pressure on steel producers in Poland from steel imports and emissions legislation, as well as high energy prices.

ArcelorMittal saw the need for a viable sector-specific approach to implementing EU emissions cuts, in order for demands to be more realistically tailored to the current weak operating climate for steel producers.

ArcelorMittal Poland sees a return to good availability of local met coals after the earlier strike at JSW mines, when it turned to supplies from the US to make up the shortfall.

The company is Poland’s biggest blast furnace coke producer, and makes just over half its steel in the country via the blast furnace route, with its EAF division making the remainder.

ArcelorMittal currently uses about 200,000 mt/month of coke at its Polish blast furnaces, he said. Coke from Poland is also shipped for use by other blast furnaces in the group, such as into Ukraine.

The company imports iron ore from Ukraine and Russia into Poland. (Source: Platts)