Oman begins construction of key green steel plant

Oman has launched the construction of the Vulcan Green Steel (VGS) plant, which is the first enterprise in the country to use hydrogen as a raw material in the production of DRI, TradeArabia reports.

The plant will be located in the Dukm Special Economic Zone. According to forecasts, the plant will produce 5 million tons of green steel per year, with investments in the project amounting to more than $3 billion.

The company plans to install two production lines with a capacity of 2.5 million tons per year each, with facilities including a direct reduced iron (DRI) production facility, an electric arc furnace (EAF), and a hot strip mill.

Construction of the plant is scheduled to be completed by 2026 and production is expected to start in 2027. The project will initially run on natural gas and later switch to green hydrogen to produce high value-added steel that will be used for automobiles, wind turbines, and consumer durables in Europe and Japan.

Vulcan Green Steel is a subsidiary of India’s Jindal Steel Group. It is currently negotiating with buyers in the European and Asian markets.

«We stand shoulder to shoulder with Oman as we work together towards a cleaner and greener industrial economy. Our Green Pledge, made just a few weeks ago, is not just a declaration. It is a substantial and tangible investment of more than $3 billion in a state-of-the-art hydrogen steel plant in Duqm, the first of its kind and the largest in the world,» noted the Deputy Chairman of the Board of VGS Venkatesh Jindal.

The project is in line with Oman’s vision to achieve zero emissions by 2050.

As GMK Center reported earlier, the MENA region can become a world leader in green steel production and direct reduction iron (DRI) trade, according to a study by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA). The region’s steel sector has a major advantage as it is already based on DRI production using gas rather than coal. In addition, it has an established source of DR iron ore, a commodity with limited supply, which accounts for only 3-4% of the total world trade in this commodity.