LIBERTY Dunaújváros decommissions two coke ovens

Liberty Dunaújváros (formerly Dunaferr), a Hungarian steel plant that is part of the global steel company Liberty Steel, is starting to decommission two coke ovens. This is stated in the company’s press release.

Coke production at the plant will end on June 12, 2024, but the shutdown process will take several months. The company is working with the relevant authorities to ensure that the shutdown is carried out safely and without harm to the environment.

Liberty notes that the units are losing their efficiency, causing maintenance difficulties and losses due to overcapacity in the market. The decommissioning of the coke ovens significantly reduces the company’s CO2 and dust emissions.

«The company will make every effort to retrain and redirect the dismissed employees to other activities. Accordingly, the company is working with trade unions and the authorities to develop a transition plan,” the statement said.

Over the next 5 years, Liberty plans to invest heavily in the Hungarian plant to ensure the decarbonization of the enterprise and ensure neutral carbon emissions from steel production.

At the end of September 2023, Liberty Steel announced the start of the shutdown of one of the three coke oven batteries (VKB №11) at its plant in Ostrava, Czech Republic. The company sees this event as an important step towards the transition to environmentally friendly steel production. The unit was inefficient and was becoming increasingly unprofitable due to overcapacity in the market.

As GMK Center reported earlier, Liberty recently signed a contract with CISDI Engineering for a feasibility study for the installation of a new electric arc furnace (EAF) in Dunaújváros, a new technology that will reduce direct CO2 emissions by about 80%. The EDM capacity is estimated at 1.5 million tons of steel per year.