Before Centrala Zaopatrzenia Hutnictwa was set up, right after the end of World War II there had been enterprises involved in provisions of raw materials and products to the Polish metallurgy industry. Those were: Centrala Surowców Hutniczych set up on March 14, 1945 and Centrala Dostaw Hutniczych established on June 30, 1945. The two enterprises were functioning independent of each other for over a year, being complementary to each other. On August 9, 1946, pursuant to the Regulation of the Ministry of Finance, the two companies were merged and thus Centrala Zaopatrzenia Hutnictwa was established.

In 1958, pursuant to the decision of the Minister of Heavy Industry, as from 1 October Centrala Zaopatrzenia Hutnictwa was re-established by merging CZH with its subsidiaries Biuro Dostaw Rud Zagranicznych and Składnica Centralna. Pursuant to the same decision, CZH was also included in the Zjednoczenie Hutnictwa Żelaza i Stali (Conglomerate of Iron and Steel Metallurgy) and its business was limited solely to the enterprises within the conglomerate. In 1960 Zakład Przygotowania Rud Żelaza at Burki was merged into CZH.

In 1977 CZH was again transferred to the Ministry of Metallurgy as a procurement entity. The basic tasks at that time were to supply materials as well as manage and store materials in line with the plans of the Ministry of Metallurgy. Additionally, CZH was the distributor in the sales of certain groups of products.

From 1982 CZH was a central trading organisation and was included in the structure of the Ministry of Metallurgy and Machine Industry. It obligatorily became a member of the Association of Iron and Steel Producers. At that time CZH was the mandatory intermediary in trading in materials. It continues to provide metallurgical materials, fuels, technical materials as well as machines and equipment to sectoral enterprises.

A breakthrough in the history and operations of CZH occurred in 1990. Market economy principles were introduced in all spheres of life. The principles of central planning, allocation and distribution ceased to exist. The free market, putting all economic entities on equal footing, force a transformation of the enterprise from a central distribution entity into a trading company. Basing on its experience, it became an equal partner for metallurgical plants, offering them top quality services and goods.

On July 9, 1992, pursuant to a resolution of the Council of Ministers, the Voivode of Katowice became the founding body for Centrala Zaopatrzenia Hutnictwa in Katowice. At the beginning of the 1990s, the first competitors to CZH entered the market, private and joint stock companies, some with substantial financial resources allowing them to act flexibly. Polish metallurgical industry with obsolete technologies and higher production costs than foreign competitors and lower product quality was not able to face foreign competitors. In effect, metallurgical production decreased with a resulting decrease of supplies to Polish metallurgy plants.

The financial years of 1998 and 1999 with a financial loss generated were a signal to launch a thorough restructuring program of CZH, which also provided for implementing a Quality Management System.At the end of 1999 an Administrator was appointed and the Restructuring Program prepared for CZH provided for profit in 2000, effective adjustment to the requirements and needs of its Clients in the competitive market of raw materials and services and implementation of a Quality Management System.
The restructuring program was implemented and Centrala Zaopatrzenia Hutnictwa State-owned enterprise, pursuant to the commercialisation deed of the Minister of State Treasury was transformed into a joint stock company on 26 September 2001.

In 2000 we implemented the Quality Assurance System followed by the Quality Management System, covering all internal processes. Our market-oriented polices resulted in 2000 in the ISO 9002 certificate for all our services, followed in 2002 by the ISO 9001 : 2000 certificate.

On 31 December 2003 the Minister of State Treasury signed a notary deed of contributing a 71% packet of shares of CZH S.A. to the portfolio of Agencja Rozwoju Przemysłu S.A. This way CZH gained a solid and reliable investor.
Now Agencja Rozwoju Przemysłu S.A. holds 87,7% of shares in CZH S.A.

During that time, a process of diversification of business operations was being carried out in the Company. in effect, we were reducing non-profitable business in favour of areas where we could employ our abilities and resources in a more effective manner. The revenue structure of CZH S.A. contains a decreasing proportion of raw materials in favour of a growing proportion of metallurgical products. New initiatives are taken up in such areas as development of logistics services and support to the restructuring processes of Polish industry.

On October 24th, 2016 Centrala Zaopatrzenia Hutnictwa S.A.,seated in Katowice changed its name to: Grupa CZH Spółka Akcyjna and in business transactions it will use the acronym: Grupa CZH S.A.

The change in the name is part of the ongoing rebranding program. The Company is celebrating its 70th anniversary. During those years the business environment has completely changed as well as many factors of the company’s functioning. The need to adapt the fundamental elements to the evolving reality has made us change the firm (the name) of the company and its graphical image.

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