Austrian steelmaker voestalpine Group has announced that it is not affected by the current throttling of gas supplies from Russia via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline in the Baltic Sea and that it is currently receiving most of the required gas volumes via the Transgas pipeline running through Slovakia. The company said that it is also thoroughly prepared should there be a further reduction or complete stop in gas supplies from Russia. Voestalpine uses natural gas primarily for heat treatment processes and for rolling mills at its steel plants, above all in Linz, Donawitz, and Kapfenberg. The recent amendment to Austria’s Energy Intervention Powers Act (EnLG) now allows voestalpine to build up its own stores of natural gas. Starting to fill its own gas storage facilities for the first time in May this year, the company will store up to 1.5 TWh of gas at storage facilities, sufficient for three months operating at full capacity, or correspondingly longer at reduced capacity. These facilities are currently half full and scheduled to be completely filled by mid-July 2022, voestalpine added.
“A stop in gas deliveries through Russia, or conversely an EU gas embargo, would hugely damage European industry. Should this worst-case scenario arise, however, having our own, full gas storage facilities, together with alternative sources of gas, would allow us to continue almost all production operations in Austria for several months,” said Voestalpine Group’s CEO Herbert Eibensteiner.
Voestalpine is working with both existing and new suppliers to diversify its sources of natural gas, contracts for alternative supply volumes have already been signed. In addition, an emergency plan in which production is incrementally adjusted to reflect available energy volumes has already been drawn up and would come into force in the event of any gas constraints.