The agreement will regulate the joint partnership of the two companies in Metinvest Adria, the project company for the construction and operation of an environmentally sustainable steel rolling plant at the steelmaking site of Piombino, Tuscany in Italy, according to Metinvest.
The new green steel plant will be based around an electric-arc furnace (EAF) and will have a capacity of 2.7 million tonnes per year of hot-rolled coil. The total investment was expected to reach €2.5 billion ($2.6 billion), Fastmarkets previously reported.
Metinvest added that the construction of the plant would be financed primarily through funds raised from international financial and credit institutions, along with the shareholders’ own capital.
Italian government grants were also expected to support the project.
The new facility will use recycled materials, including scrap, pig iron and direct reduced iron, which will be partially sourced from Metinvest’s Ukrainian operations, Metinvest said.
The Ukrainian steelmaker added that the signed agreement formalized the process of joint management, decision-making and financing that would facilitate the construction of the new plant.
The agreement is expected to come into force in the second half of 2025, following the fulfillment of all preceding conditions, including obtaining the necessary regulatory approvals.
In addition to the shareholder agreement, Metinvest Adria and Danieli have signed a contract for the development of the basic engineering for the new steel plant in Piombino.
“The contract covers basic engineering for electric-arc furnaces, steelmaking, casting and rolling. It also includes the establishment of a cold steel processing and service center, as well as auxiliary facilities and equipment,” Metinvest said.
The construction of the new green steel plant was intended to promote the industrial revitalization of the town of Piombino.
JSW Steel Italy, a subsidiary of India’s JSW Steel, which acquired the Piombino steel site from Algeria’s Cevital in 2018, is also part of the modernization plans.
According to a Memorandum of Understanding, signed between JSW Steel Italy and the Italian authorities in March 2024, a project for the modernization of JSW’s rail mill should be implemented.
JSW Steel Italy can produce rail, wire rod and bar products, for which they rely on billet and bloom shipments from its parent company.
JSW Steel Italy has already granted rights to Metinvest over part of the property regarding the construction of the new green steel plant.
Italy focuses on decarbonization of its steel industry
The European market for green steel is expanding slowly in Europe, with Northern Europe leading the race, industry sources told Fastmarkets.
In Norway, Denmark and Sweden, there are state-funded projects requiring green steel procurement, while in Southern and Central Europe, such projects are lacking, Fastmarkets understands.
European steelmakers, however, remain committed to the green steel transition. More than 50 million tonnes of new green steelmaking capacity, using EAFs or a combination of EAFs and direct-iron-reduction (DRI), was expected to come online in Europe in the period 2025-30, Fastmarkets has estimated.
Italian steel producers have also decided to pursue ambitious green steel goals by 2025.
For example, DRI Italia, a wholly owned subsidiary of state-owned development agency Invitalia, was to build a DRI facility at the Taranto steelworks at Puglia in Southeast Italy, using state funds.
The company said that the 2 million tpy DRI module and EAFs would become operational by 2026.
In 2022, EAF-based flat steel producer Arvedi revealed plans to invest about €227 million in the “green” transformation of its steel plants at Trieste and Cremona, and a year later, the company launched its own green steel brand, Arvzero.
