Construction starts on 'world's most advanced steel plant'

Europe is getting its first steel plant in 40 years. Located in Kapfenberg, Austria, Voestalpine is investing up to €350m in the project. A? recent groundbreaking ceremony marked the official start of the three-year construction phase for the plant.

From 2021 onwards, each year the fully digitalised plant will produce around 205,000 tonnes of high-performance steel. Once operative, the plant is intended to replace the existing Voestalpine Böhler Edelstahl GmbH & Co KG plant in Kapfenberg and designed to produce premium quality pre-materials for aircraft components, tools for the automotive industry, equipment for oil and gas extraction, and for the 3D printing of highly complex metal parts. Around 8,000 process data will be recorded in parallel, and implemented or evaluated on an ongoing basis.

The investment is also said to be setting new standards in environmental protection: the centerpiece of the plant — an electric arc furnace which melts down ultra-pure scrap combined with various alloy metals into special steels — will operate using only electricity generated from renewables.