Dunaferr effectively halts steelmaking in Hungary with closure of second BF

Integrated steelmaker Dunaferr has effectively shut down its steelmaking operations in Hungary with the closure of a second blast furnace at its Dunaújvárosdue facility, due to interrupted coke supplies, sources confirmed to Fastmarkets on Tuesday September 20.The company had said on September 16 that had been forced to stop the second blast furnace because Donau Brennstoffkontor (DBK), “which has been supplying the essential raw material coke for decades, unexpectedly [failed] to deliver.”

Dunaferr halted its smaller blast furnace at Dunaújváros in August due to weak steel market fundamentals and high production costs.

The company’s two blast furnaces have a combined capacity of 1.40 million tpy of pig iron, which it uses to produce hot-rolled, cold-rolled and hot-dipped  galvanized coil products. 

“The forced shutdown due to a lack of coke means that there is currently no possibility of pig iron and steel production at Dunaferr,” the company said.

The company said the bigger BF would need to be restarted “as soon as possible because a long-lasting shutdown would make the restart of pig iron production at the BF impossible due to technical risks and costs.”

Dunaffer added that “the only solution would be for DBK to restart the delivery of the necessary quantity and quality of coke within a week at the latest.”

DBK could not be reached for comment by the time of publication.

Dunaferr is is owned by Ukrainian company Industrial Union of Donbass (ISD) through the Cyprus-based company Steelhold, which is reportedly has ties  to Russia, notably through the Russian state development bank VEB.

ISD used to own another steelmaking facility in Europe, Huta Czestochowa in Poland, but lost control of that in 2019, when the facility was declared bankrupt

Published by: Julia Bolotova