Spain’s Megasa, Europe’s fourth-largest long steel supplier, plans to invest more than €300 million ($348.1m) to upgrade its facilities in Portugal. It will focus on modernising the SN Maia and SN Seixal operations, with a shift towards captive renewable energy consumption, Kallanish notes.
The steelmaker is transforming its energy matrix with the installation of photovoltaic solar panels at both sites.
“The project aims to reduce our dependence on the national electricity grid, the volatility of electricity market prices in the wake of conflicts in the Middle East and the changes currently taking place in European energy systems,” the company states.
The group believes the Portuguese government’s extension of compensation for indirect CO₂ costs is crucial to the future of the country’s steel industry, at a time when steel mills across Europe are either at risk of closing or have closed.
“As governments cannot intervene in electricity prices, which are set in the Iberian market, the government’s decision directly improves the competitiveness of electricity-intensive industries, particularly steel,” Megasa emphasises.
The company stresses that energy is its second-largest production cost, after ferrous scrap, with its plants being Portugal’s two largest consumers of electricity.
The Maia and Seixal operations produce wire rod, rebar and welded mesh.
