cement industry

The first cement plant in Poland, and the fifth in the world, was founded in 1857 in Grodziec. Poland at that time was under occupation, and Grodziec was in the Russian zone. Produced cement was of a very good quality, successful not only in exhibitions in Russia, but also in Paris, London and Vienna.

In those days the most important center of production of cement was Opole. the first cement plant established in this region was called Zementwerke Portland, and its capacity (900 tonnes) was more than twice the performance of cement plant in Grodziec. Over the next 50 years in the Upper Silesia further 10 plants were formed, 9 of which were located near Opole.

During World War I Polish cement plants suffered significant losses as a result of both the destruction and requisition, dependency and unpaid downturns in the economy. Another problem after independence was a combination of three different economic systems into one unit. The result of these problems was the level of cement production in 1919, which amounted to 199 000 tonnes of cement, which represented 21% of the production capacity.

World War II brought another impairment, during which the Polish economy has been used for the German or Russian army. Most of the factories were destroyed or exported abroad. The reconstruction of industry was, however, quite quick: already 2 years after the war, in 1947, cement production matched that of 1938.

After the war, Poland fell under Soviet influence, and the ruling regime assumed control of the economy. Despite the many flaws of this system, four decades of communism in Poland created a modern cement industry that met the national needs. A lot of cement plants have been opened that are still operating today: Gorazdze, Ożarów (both built by the Danish company FL Smidth), Nowiny, Warta, Małogoszcz. Moreover, already in the '80s, despite the failing of the socialist system, there has been a significant restructuring of the cement industry, that brought increased productivity and environmental performance of cement plants, and the entire restructuring program was worth over 23 billion zlotys.

In 1989 Poland became a democratic country with open market economy. For the cement industry, this meant privatization of all cement plants, and a vast majority of it was acquired by global companies such as Lafarge, Heidelberg and Cemex. This contributed to the further improvement of plants, both in terms of production capacity and ecology. These changes have continued after the Polish accession to the European Union in 2005. In 2010, Poland produced more than 15 million tons of cement, which placed Poland among the 10 largest cement producers in Europe.