MEPS International: Global steel production and capacity overview for 2025

Thyssenkrupp GmbH

Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe's plan to replace two blast furnaces at the Duisburg site with a DRI plant and two EAFs remains unchanged despite the restructuring plans. The company announced plans to reduce the workforce from 27,000 to 16,000 employees and to reduce annual production capacity by up to 25% by 2030. However, the ongoing sale of the company to the Czech energy company EP Group and the plans for the Duisburg site remain unaffected. The EP Group has already acquired a 20% stake and plans to increase its share to 50%.

Liberty Steel

The Liberty Steel sites in Liège and Dudelange were declared insolvent at the end of November. The Luxembourg Commercial Court made this judgement after the company failed to pay employees their salaries for October and November. An insolvency administrator has been appointed to oversee the proceedings and focus on finding a potential buyer. Liberty Steel's sites in Liège and Dudelange specialise in the production of galvanised coils.

SSAB

Steel plant manufacturer SMS is to build a new EAF plant at its Oxelösund site in Sweden. SSAB had already announced the investment of 500 million euros to decarbonise its Oxelösund plant in June 2023. The new furnace with a capacity of 190 tonnes will be one of the largest in the world and is scheduled to go into operation at the end of 2026. In October, the European Commission approved the Swedish government's plan to provide a €128 million grant to support the decarbonisation of SSAB's Luleå site. A new EAF at this plant will have an annual production capacity of up to 2.5 million tonnes.

Metinvest

Metinvest and Danieli are close to agreeing on the establishment of a joint venture to build a new €2.5bn flat steel plant in Piombino, Italy. The EAF-based plant will produce 2.7 million tonnes of hot-rolled coils per year from scrap, pig iron and direct-reduced iron from Ukraine. The companies are aiming to declare the plant a project of ‘national strategic interest’ in order to speed up the approval process. Metinvest Adria, a newly established Italian subsidiary of Metinvest, will hold the majority stake in the new plant, while Danieli will acquire 25%. Commissioning is planned for the end of 2027.

Celsa Steel

The Czech investment company Sev.en Global Investments has signed a formal agreement to acquire Celsa Steel UK and Celsa Nordic from the Spanish parent company Celsa Group. Celsa Steel UK is recognised as the largest steel recycler in the UK. Based in Cardiff, South Wales, the company has an annual production capacity of up to 1.2 million tonnes of long products. Celsa Nordic operates in Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark and offers integrated scrap collection and processing as well as steel products for the construction industry.

Marcegaglia Stainless Steel

Marcegaglia has received €100 million in financing from the European Investment Bank to decarbonise its activities in northern Italy. The financing supports investments of 170 million euros in the digitalisation and automation of logistics at the Ravenna and San Giorgio di Nogaro plants. Marcegaglia plans to complete these projects by 2028.

Shandong Taigang Xinhai Stainless Steel

Shandong Taigang Xinhai Stainless Steel has started hot testing of its new 2,100mm annealing and pickling line in Junan, Lingyi. The new plant has an annual production capacity of up to 900,000 tonnes. This completes the company's development of 1.75 million tonnes per year of new annealing and pickling capacity. A similar 1,600 mm plant with an annual production of 850,000 tonnes was completed in June.

Fujian Tsingtuo Special Steel

Tsingtuo Special Steel has commissioned a fourth hot strip annealing and pickling line at its Ningde site in Fujian province. The line can process strips with a width of up to 1,550 mm. Up to three million tonnes of stainless steel strip can now be produced annually at the Ningde site.

Acerinox

Acerinox has finalised the sale of its Malaysian subsidiary Bahru Stainless to Worldwide Stainless for USD 95 million. Acerinox had previously announced that it would cease production at the site in May 2024 due to difficult market conditions caused by competition from Chinese manufacturers.

JFE Steel

JFE Steel Corporation is planning to build a new continuous hot-dip galvanising line at its West Japan plant in Fukuyama. The JPY 70 billion (USD 475 million) project is scheduled for completion in the third quarter of 2028. The plant will provide an annual production capacity of 360,000 tonnes of ultra-high-strength galvanised steel sheets to meet the increased demand from the automotive industry.

Kobe Steel

The Japanese company Kobe Steel is planning to modernise an existing galvanising line to apply zinc, aluminium and magnesium coatings. The investment amounts to JPY 32 billion (USD 475 million). The new plant will enable an annual production of up to 250,000 tonnes and is scheduled to go into operation in summer 2028.

Liuzhou Iron & Steel

Liuzhou Iron & Steel (Liugang) has commissioned a new heavy plate rolling mill with an annual capacity of 2.6 million tonnes in the Chinese province of Guangxi. The company has also commissioned a blast furnace at a nearby site. Both projects mark the completion of the first phase of a 5 billion dollar project in the port of Fangchenggang.

Liberty Steel Peoria

Liberty Steel USA has announced that it will temporarily close its Peoria wire rod mill in Illinois and furlough the workforce. The company justifies this step with an influx of cheap imports, which are having a negative impact on the steelworks and rolling mills. The plant has been operating at reduced capacity since September.

Source: MEPS Interational, Photo: Fotolia