German steel company Salzgitter AG has announced that its subsidiary Hüttenwerke Krupp Mannesmann (HKM) has permanently shut down blast furnace A at its Duisburg plant. The closure of the unit is associated with the company's transition to low-carbon steel production.
The last melting at Furnace A took place on September 19th. The blast furnace was commissioned in 1973 and has produced about 93 million tons of pig iron over more than half a century of operation.
As previously reported, HKM had also decommissioned coke oven battery No. 2 at the same Duisburg plant a few days earlier.
Blast furnace A will be replaced by an electric arc furnace
Starting in 2029, HKM intends to produce low-carbon steel in Duisburg using a new electric arc furnace (EAF). Its annual capacity will be up to 2.5 million tons, which will make the installation the largest in Germany and the second largest in the European Union.
The project will receive 200 million euros of funding from the German Federal government and the state of North Rhine—Westphalia as part of the industrial support and climate protection program. Construction of the facility began in August this year and is scheduled to be completed in 2029.
Gunnar Grobler, CEO of Salzgitter, said that the closure of Blast Furnace A was another step towards achieving the group's goal of moving to near-zero carbon footprint steel production by the mid-2030s. As part of this strategy, the company plans to replace the traditional blast furnace technology in Duisburg with production based on an electric arc furnace.
Blast furnace B will provide output during the transition period
Until the new electric arc furnace is put into operation, production at the Duisburg site will be supported by blast furnace B. A few weeks ago, it was put back into operation after several months of repairs.
In 2025, two HKM blast furnaces produced about 4 million tons of pig iron. Against the background of the reconstruction of furnace B and the final shutdown of blast furnace production, it is expected that in 2026 the output of pig iron in furnace A will decrease to about 3 million tons.
Starting in 2027, HKM's annual capacity is expected to reach 2.5 million tons. At the first stage, the company will operate using one blast furnace, and then switch to a new electric arc furnace.