Hungarian Dunaferr plans to resume rolling mills in July

Hungarian steelmaker Dunaferr continues to operate under capacity constraints as the bidding process for the steel mill between Liberty Steel (GFG Alliance) and Mauritius-based Vulcan Steel continues. Argus.Media informs about it.

According to trade union sources and other persons close to the company, the rolling mills of the company are currently idle, and their work is expected to be resumed on July 11. The plant has a rolled steel production capacity of 2 million tons/year, currently the steel plant produces only a fifth of these volumes.

Liberty Steel and Vulcan Steel will continue to compete for the Hungarian steel mill Dunaferr, which is currently under temporary administration, the deadline for submitting tenders is June 30. Tender applications from other participants – the Ukrainian Metinvest group, the Swiss Trasteel Trading Holdind and the Hungarian Trinec Property – were excluded.

The liquidator has established two companies to sell assets during the liquidation process – Dunarolling for the rolling lines and Duna Furnace for the coke operations. This has sparked talk that the assets may be partially split. However, sources say they will be in one package, with only metals trader Dutrade and smaller assets separated.

In addition, the environmental licenses based on the current blast furnace configuration are valid until 2027 and will not be renewed beyond that date, so the buyer will have to invest in alternative technologies.

As GMK Center repored earlier, at the end of December 2022, the Municipal Court of Budapest made a decision to eliminate Dunaferr ISD. The plant received a temporary administration.

The steel plant has been idle since the third quarter of 2022. In December 2022, the Hungarian authorities asked Liberty Steel to ship coal to Dunaferr in order to avoid shutdown of the plant’s coke batteries, limited volumes were delivered to the company. In February 2023, the plant restarted blast furnace №2 and the cold rolling state, in March – the hot rolling state.

Hungary is making active efforts to start the plant, in particular, the state has taken over the costs of paying wages in the amount of $44.8 million. The future owner of the enterprise has two demands – preservation of the production process, including steel smelting, and full wages for all employees. He will also have to take on the costs of decarbonization of the steel plant.