The Hungarian steel mill Dunaferr was forced to stop production

On September 16, 2022, the Hungarian steel plant Dunaferr in Dunaújváros had to stop the second blast furnace. Euractiv writes about it.

Dunaferr shut down the first furnace with a capacity of 550,000 tons of pig iron per year at the end of the summer.

The company said that the immediate reason for the shutdown is the unexpected refusal of Austria-based Donau Brennstoffkontor GmbH, their partner for decades, to supply the essential coke.

“The forced shutdown now means that there is currently no possibility for pig iron and steel production at Dunaferr,” the statement said.

The company said their only chance of survival is to maintain production and restart the blast furnaces quickly. For this, a supply of the necessary quantity and quality of coke within a week. On the other hand, a longer shutdown would make Dunaferr’s operations impossible – mainly due to the technical risks and costs of restarting.

Dunaferr is one of the largest industrial companies in Hungary, employing 4,500 people. The company emphasizes that the pandemic, the invasion of the Russian Federation in Ukraine and the energy crisis put Dunaferr on the verge of survival. Coping with the current crisis in the industry, the company believes, is possible only with help from the state. As Hungarian Hirado reports, Dunaferr recalled that the government has begun to develop certain measures to support large industrial producers. The rescue program could help Dunaferr’s problems, in particular, through measures to lower energy prices, wage subsidies and tax breaks.

As GMK Center reported earlier, the Italian producer of long products Ferriere Nord Pittini is suspending work at the Osoppo plant due to high electricity costs. This was reported by Eurometal with reference to S&P Global. The company suspend work for 751 workers at the plant from August 29, 2022 to October 2.