Japanese steel company Nippon Steel has submitted plans to Slovak authorities to build an electric arc furnace at its steel plant in Kosice in eastern Slovakia, according to local media reports.
The planned electric arc furnace will have an annual production capacity of 1.5-2.1 million tons of steel, depending on the use of scrap and hot briquetted iron. Although the investment will replace some of the carbon-intensive production with low-emission technologies, the total annual capacity of the steel plant is expected to remain unchanged at 4.5 million tons.
The Nippon Steel project is expected to reduce carbon monoxide emissions at the Kosice plant by 56 percent, while nitrogen oxide emissions may decrease by about 25 percent. Total industrial emissions at a facility can decrease by almost a third, depending on the pollutant being measured.
The cost of the investment was not disclosed. Previous plans prepared within the framework of US Steel, which included two electric arc furnaces, were estimated at more than 1.25 billion euros. Construction of the new facility is scheduled to begin in 2027, and commissioning is expected by 2030, while existing production will continue.
