ArcelorMittal Poland continues the demolition of the former sinter plant closed in 2012. The entire plant occupied 30 hectares at Igołomska Street. Already in 2021, "Fat Bertha" disappeared from the landscape of Nowa Huta - the over 80-metre-high chimney of the sinter plant, then smaller buildings, and now the time has come for three huge cranes, i.e. the so-called loading bridges, which were used to load raw materials for the production of sinter. Heavy construction equipment weighing as much as 150 tons was used to demolish them. During the second stage of demolition, it is planned to recover over 22,000 tons of scrap metal, which will go to the Dąbrowa Górnicza steelworks and will be used to produce steel.
In the past, there were two sinter plants in the Kraków steelworks, i.e. plants where sinter for blast furnaces was produced. The first one started operating in 1954 and was shut down at the turn of 1990/91. The latter - launched in December 1966 - ceased to work in June 2012. These plants were responsible for the largest part of dust emissions from the Kraków steelworks. There were a total of 108 buildings, 115 belt conveyors, 4 electrostatic precipitators and 5 transshipment bridges in both sinter plants.
“The entire infrastructure of the sinter plant is gradually being dismantled as part of a long-term project to clean up unused facilities and installations in the Krakow branch. The huge area of over 30 hectares recovered in this way can be used for other business activities" explains Adam Parzoch, Head of Business Transformation at ArcelorMittal Poland.
Precision work of a more than 150-ton excavator
Demolition work for the second phase of this project began in September 2024 and will be completed in the autumn of this year. During this time, the company plans to recover over 22,000 tons of scrap metal, which will be recycled in the Dąbrowa steel plant. It will be scrap metal coming from, m.in others, three overhead cranes, i.e. transshipment bridges located right next to Igołomska Street.
The cranes, which are about 40 meters high and move on roadways over 300 meters long, were demolished one by one with the use of heavy equipment. “6 people from a specialist company dealing with dismantling and two employees of our Krakow steelworks worked on the demolition of the cranes. Heavy equipment, including excavators, also worked on the site of the former sinter plant. The largest of them weighed 150 tonnes" emphasizes Adam Kućmierczyk, project manager for the dismantling of the sinter plant facilities at ArcelorMittal Poland. “Safety is supervised by OHS teams: both ours and the contractors" he adds.
Demolition works in the Krakow steelworks are carried out by the experienced company Mrozek Polska, which demolished "Fat Bertha" four years ago.
“The project of dismantling the dock levellers required unconventional solutions, high precision and selection of appropriate technology, because the cranes were located in the immediate vicinity of a busy street and an active tram track” emphasizes Grzegorz Koenig, site manager from Mrozek Polska. “Thanks to our experience and efficient cooperation with the ArcelorMittal Poland team, we dismantled these huge structures very efficiently. After tidying up the area, we will move on to the demolition of other, smaller structures” he adds.
Big changes and innovative plans
ArcelorMittal Poland in Krakow currently operates only steel processing installations – the most modern hot sheet rolling mill in Europe, as well as a cold rolling mill with galvanizing and sheet metal painting lines.
"The Kraków steelworks has undergone a number of changes in recent years – we have shut down the raw material part, i.e. the blast furnace and steel plant, and last year also the coking plant, which is associated with a significant reduction in the environmental impact of our operations" says Wojciech Koszuta, chairman and CEO of ArcelorMittal Poland. "We are now consistently investing in the processing part and in clean technologies. We have launched hydrogen furnaces in the annealing plant, in the cold rolling mill, at a cost of PLN 52 million, and soon a hydrogen production plant will be built on the premises of the Krakow steelworks. Since the beginning of our operations in Poland, investments in Kraków's rolling mills have already consumed almost PLN 2.5 billion" sums up chairman Koszuta.
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