ArcelorMittal Poland officially opened new hydrogen furnaces in the annealing plant at its Krakow steelworks. This PLN 52 million project is part of a PLN 100 million investment package, which also includes a new galvanizing coating line.

The new furnaces in the cold rolling mill's annealing plant will improve sheet metal purity and product quality. Wojciech Koszuta, CEO of ArcelorMittal Poland, said the process now uses a fully hydrogen protective atmosphere, replacing ammonia. This change cuts annealing time in half, reducing media consumption and CO2 emissions on this line by 50%.

Next year, hydrogen will also fuel two galvanizing plants at the Krakow branch, with a new hydrogen production facility currently under construction. This separate project costs an additional PLN 100 million.