UK-based GFG Alliance has announced that it has closed the coke ovens at its subsidiary UK-based steelmaker Liberty Steel Group’s Whyalla plant in Australia in line with low-carbon, green steel production targets.
Coke will be imported for use in the blast furnace until the installation of the electric arc furnace, of which the construction is expected to be completed in 2025. The new electric arc furnace, which will increase steelmaking capacity at Whyalla from an annual one million mt to over 1.5 million mt, is expected to reduce carbon emissions by 90 percent by 2025 compared with traditional blast furnace production, as SteelOrbis previously reported.
“With our reserves of over four billion mt of high quality magnetite ore and South Australia’s wind and solar energy, there is no better place to usher in the next generation of steelmaking technology based on clean energy and green hydrogen,” Sanjeev Gupta, executive chairman of GFG, commented regarding Whyalla.
