Beltrame advances steel production restart in Romania

Italy’s Beltrame Group is re-launching crude steelmaking at its Donalam plant in Romania, formerly COS Targoviste, the group’s chief commercial officer, Enrico Fornelli, confirmed to Kallanish on the sidelines of this week’s Made in Steel tradeshow in Milan.

Beltrame acquired the mill last year and relaunched rebar production in June, using feedstock sourced from other parts of the group. The restart last year was made difficult due to high energy costs, but the plant is now launching its melt shop, which will be fed with scrap sourced on the domestic market.

Over the course of the next five years, Beltrame intends to invest some €100 million ($109m) to update equipment at Donalam and make it sustainable in terms of carbon footprint.

Fornelli explained that the competitive advantage of the Romanian plant is the fact it is the sole electric arc furnace-based steelmaker in the country. It has access to large quantities of scrap currently being exported to Turkey and other European countries. He added that the proximity to Ukraine puts the plant in a good position to supply the country’s post-war reconstruction once this begins.

Beltrame is aiming to produce some 300,000 tonnes/year of rebar at Targoviste to feed domestic rebar demand.

According to worldsteel data, Romania in 2022 produced 2.6 million tonnes of crude steel, a record low.

Emanuele Norsa Italy