High demand for EAF in the global market – Danieli CEO

Italy’s Danieli, one of the leading European and global manufacturers of equipment for metallurgy, is seeing high demand for electric arc furnaces (EAFs) in the global market. Giacomo Marechi Danieli, CEO of Danieli, told Japan Metal Daily.

According to him, Danieli currently has unfinished orders for 30 furnaces, and the company has secured enough orders to ensure its workforce for 2-3 years.

«According to our estimates, our company accounts for more than half of the global sales of electric arc furnaces,» said Danieli’s CEO.

Giacomo Marechi Danieli also noted the successful operation of Energiron technology. These are direct reduced iron (DRI) plants for natural gas producing countries such as South and Central America.

According to the CEO of the company, Danieli’s section/shape lines, which have a global market share of about 70%, are also showing good results.

“Most notably we have been receiving many inquiries regarding MIDA, our unique endless rolling mill which directly connects an electric arc furnace, continuous caster and bar/shape mill. The most unique characteristic of ‘MIDA’ is its extremely high energy efficiency due to not requiring the re-heating of billets,” explained Danieli.

The company’s CEO notes that Danieli aims to strengthen its efforts to provide technology offerings to integrated steel producers considering converting from blast furnaces to electric arc furnaces.

The company has already received orders for large EAFs from many integrated steel producers in Western markets, including Canada’s Algoma Steel in 2021. As part of this cooperation, Danieli plans to supply two 250-ton electric arc furnaces as an alternative to a blast furnace and aims to have them in operation by summer 2024.

The company will set up a production site in the Kansai region to expand its after-sales inspection/maintenance services in the Japanese market. It will start providing services no earlier than June 2024.

In the 2022/2023 fiscal year (ended June 30, 2023), Danieli increased sales by more than 10% compared to the previous fiscal year to €4.1 billion. Over the past 20 years, Danieli has supplied 175 electric arc furnaces to customers around the world.

As GMK Center reported earlier, the company will supply a hybrid DRI unit for the Ternium steel plant in Mexico. The project will contribute to Ternium’s commitment to decarbonize its production by 2030.