The Czech steel industry is struggling to avoid the ongoing deep crisis

The Czech Steel Industry Union (Ocelářská unie) has published data on steel production and trade in the Czech Republic for 2025. According to the report, the country's steel production continues to remain at historically low levels, still feeling the impact of the sharp decline seen between 2021 and 2024. Despite a slight improvement in the production of finished products, the report notes that almost all of the increase was due to the reopening of the Nova Huja plant in Ostrava. The weak prospects for the sector are due to low demand, high energy costs, pressure from cheap imports from third countries, global geopolitical events, high and volatile prices for emissions quotas, and additional costs associated with the European Green Agreement. The long-term decline in production continues. The Czech steel industry has experienced a significant long-term decline. Unlike the former Czechoslovakia, which until the early 1990s was one of the world's leading steel producers with a per capita output of about 1 ton, today production has declined sharply. In 2025, the country produced 2.4 million tons of steel, which remained virtually unchanged from the previous year and became one of the lowest figures in history. Over the past decade, production has decreased by more than 50%, with the 2015 figure being 5.3 million tons, which is, in particular, due to the cessation of core production by Freedom, based in Ostrava (now known as Nová huť). Low consumption, limited extraction in finished products As for consumption, there was a moderate recovery. Projected steel consumption in 2025 has increased to 5.5 million tons, although this figure is the second highest after the global financial crisis in 2009. Despite the year-on-year increase in the production of finished products, the growth in the production of long and flat rolled products was largely due to the resumption of production at the Nova Khua plant. The total volume of finished product production remained at the level of 2023. In 2025, the production of long products exceeded 2 million tons, flat products - 805,000 tons, and the production of steel pipes increased to 314,000 tons. Price and import pressures on the sector persist, Roman Heide, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Czech Steel Union and CEO of Třinecké železárny, spoke about the challenges facing the industry, stating that external factors weakening economic stability across Europe have seriously affected the steel sector. Heide stressed that cheap imports from third countries and high energy costs