Voestalpine plans to produce premium steel from low-grade scrap

Steel company Voestalpine is launching a unique flagship project to use low-grade scrap in the production of premium steel products for automakers. This is stated in the company’s press release.

Voestalpine will cooperate with the automaker Mercedes-Benz and TSR Recycling to achieve its goals. The project is based on the use of low-quality scrap as a raw material for high-quality steel that will be used in the production of side panels for the Mercedes A-Class.

«Steel is a material that can be recycled again and again with almost no loss of quality. For this reason, the so-called high-quality pre-consumer scrap (“new scrap”) already plays an important role in steel production today. However, the increasing demand for recycled materials due to the European steel industry’s switch to green steel production cannot be fully covered by new scrap,» the company said.

As part of its greentec steel plan, Voestalpine is replacing two blast furnaces with electric arc furnaces in Linz and Donavik by 2027. Both furnaces will be fired with a mixture of hot briquetted iron and scrap, so recycled materials are valuable and play a key role in the transition to environmentally friendly steel production.

«voestalpine has been working successfully for decades on closing loops in production in order to conserve resources and secure the supply of raw materials. This unique cooperation with Mercedes-Benz and TSR Recycling shows us further opportunities and potential in the circular economy and is another important puzzle piece on the road to green steel production,» says Herbert Eibensteiner, CEO of voestalpine AG.

Earlier this year, voestalpine AG produced the world’s first high-quality green wire rod from hydrogen-reduced iron and scrap at its Donavik plant. The hydrogen-reduced pure iron was produced at the Hyfor pilot plant, and the landmark smelting was carried out at the Technikum Metallurgie research center, a unique small but fully-fledged steel plant of the group.