Italian longs producer Acciaierie Bertoli Safau (ABS), the steelmaking division of equipment maker Danieli Group, has broken ground on its new “Hybrid Digital Green Plant” at its Pozzuolo del Friuli facility in northeast Italy. This represent a €400 million ($461.29m) investment of which €355m is devoted to Danieli equipment, a company spokesperson confirms to Kallanish.
The plant, an advanced special steel production line, is part of ABS’s €817m investment plan for the period 2023-2028 with the aim to cut CO2 emissions by 30% by 2030. It includes revamp of the two remaining Cargnacco furnaces. Total capacity will rise from the current 1.4 million tonnes to over 2.1mt/year when the industrial plan is completed, the spokesperson confirms.
With the Hybrid Digital Green Plant, for the first time, 12 Danieli proprietary technologies are integrated within a single production facility. ABS is implementing the full range of Danieli’s latest steelmaking innovations in one line, from scrap handling and melting through to secondary metallurgy, fume treatment, water recovery, continuous casting and full automation.
At the heart of the plant is the Digimelter, Danieli’s next-generation EAF. Fed by the so-called “endless continuous scrap charging (ECS)” system, it preheats scrap to around 400°C using residual fume heat before entering the furnace. The Q-One digital power system minimises grid disturbances, improves energy efficiency and allows direct input from renewable sources. The equipment promises a 50 kWh/t drop in electricity consumption, 20% lower graphite electrode use, 16% lower carbon intensity and a 34% reduction in complex reagents.
With no personnel on the production floor, machine learning systems control the entire plant fully automated. A closed-loop cooling system cuts water use by up to 50%, recovering over 24 MW of thermal energy. The EU-funded “Custard” project will convert combustion CO2 into sodium bicarbonate, cutting emissions by over 13,000/t, with 20 MW of residual heat feeding Udine’s district heating network.
“With the Hybrid Digital Green Plant we are continuing the journey begun over ten years ago with the design of the Saturno-QWR line,” ABS chairman and Danieli vice president Camilla Benedetti says in a note. “Thanks to this new low-carbon footprint line, we will deliver our strategy in the special steels market through two key drivers: efficiency… and the improvement of our environmental footprint.”
Danieli expects its steelmaking division results to improve significantly this year as a rise in shipments has been seen during early 2026 thanks to improved prices and margins. That enables a possible return to profitability for ABS. A growing order book is laying the foundation for potentially stronger revenues and margins in 2026/2027 compared with the current financial year, the company notes in its recent financial statement.
Author: Natalia Capra
