Germany-based steelmaker Salzgitter Group has announced that its blast furnace A has been restarted following complete modernization work lasting just over 100 days. According to the company, with the revamp of blast furnace A, which required €100 million of investment, Salzgitter Group has taken a key operational step towards low-CO2 steel production by 2033.
Ulrich Grethe, chairman of Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH, stated, “This relining provides us and our customers and partners the security we need to continue to consistently drive the transformation of steel production forward,” adding that the company will complete the next steps of its SALCOS program thanks to the modernized pig iron production. After this revamp, the blast furnace has started its final production cycle.
Blast furnace A was originally commissioned in 1977 and has been revamped several times. The blast furnace has an annual capacity of around 2 million mt of pig iron.