NLMK’s Italian facility in Verona is to build a new electric arc furnace for slab production, scheduled to be commissioned in 2027, a company representative confirms to Kallanish.
The new EAF production process is expected to ensure minimal environmental impact while facilitating the production of green steel slab. The steelmaker is simultaneously executing a project to electrify its existing gas-powered equipment. Verona already produces green slab thanks to the existing EAF that supplies half of the mills’ plate production.
The site’s revenue is anticipated to rise by 50% as a result of the investment, from €400 million ($432.11) to roughly €600m. In 2023, NLMK Verona achieved a turnover of €413m. It has an annual capacity of 450,000 tonnes and employs 310 people. It sells 75% of its production domestically while also exporting to markets in Asia, North America, and other EU countries. The Verona facility is part of the NLMK Europe plate division together with NLMK Clabecq in Belgium and Denmark’s NLMK DanSteel.
This month, NLMK Clabecq is launching an enhanced process technology called “InThinity”, designed to produce thin plate with tight thickness tolerances. Clabecq is now able to produce high-precision plate across thicknesses of up to 15mm.
This is the result of a revamp of the finishing mill completed in 2023. The investment included the upgrade of the Hydraulic Gauge Control (HGC), advanced flatness management, the replacement of the primary and the secondary descaler, now operating at 250 and 130 bars, and the creation of four independent rolling stands that allow for precise adjustments during production. These guarantee a uniform thickness throughout the plate while simultaneously enhancing flatness.
“This technology ensures that high precision is embedded in every plate as a standard offering, strengthening our position as a supplier of premium steel products and helping manufacturers achieve better performance in their operations,” chief commercial officer of NLMK Europe Plate, Peter Selbach, says in a note sent to Kallanish.
InThinity guarantees thickness tolerances that exceed industry standards. “For thicknesses between 3mm and 5mm, tolerances are reduced from 1mm according to EN 10029 to 0.6mm with InThinity, and further to a guaranteed 0.4mm with InThinity+,” the note concludes.
With an annual capacity of 750,000t, NLMK Clabecq produces steel plate ranging from 3 to 120mm thicknesses for the construction, shipbuilding, energy, transport, yellow goods, and mining sectors.
Natalia Capra France
