China’s Shougang Group orders electric arc furnace from Danieli

Chinese steelmaker Shougang Group has ordered a 160-ton electric arc furnace (EAF) from Italian equipment supplier Danieli. This is reported by Kallanish.

The unit is intended for Shougang’s subsidiary Qian’an Steel.

Construction of the 1.3 million tpa EAF facility as part of Qian’an Steel’s project to produce high-quality steel with almost zero carbon emissions will begin in October this year. It will be located in the Qian’an Economic Development Zone (Hebei Province). Construction is scheduled to be completed in December 2026.

The Italian company will supply Shougang with a Danieli Zerobucket electric arc furnace equipped with a continuous scrap loading system. The equipment ensures efficient energy recovery and has the lowest carbon emissions of any plant in operation.

As GMK Center reported earlier, local authorities in China approved 7.1 million tons of new steel capacity in the first half of 2024, according to the Center for Energy and Clean Air Research (CREA). These are more environmentally friendly scrap-based electric arc furnace (EAF) projects.

At the same time, no new coal-based steel projects were approved in the country during the period. This could mark a turning point for the Chinese steel industry in terms of stopping new investments in coal-fired capacity.