thyssenkrupp to invest €2 billion constructing Germany's largest DRI plant

The major project remains subject to public funding.

Martina Merz, CEO of thyssenkrupp AG commented: "The release of this enormous investment comes in the midst of the company's transformation, in what is also for all concerned an extremely challenging environment. We are thus underlining our claim to make a significant and, above all, rapid contribution to the green transformation – also where steel is concerned. This is a further step for our team at Steel Europe, for our partners and for the Ruhr region. In this region, we have everything that is needed for a successful green transformation. That is why the Ruhr region is playing a leading role in the energy turnaround. We are firmly convinced of this, and this is also borne out by this investment, which heralds a new era for steel production in the Ruhr region."

Bernhard Osburg, chairman of the executive board of thyssenkrupp Steel Europe AG stated: "With today's decisions, we are continuing to set the pace on our path to climate-friendly steel production. The first direct reduction plant with downstream melters will supply our customers with over 2Mt of low-CO₂ premium steel per year in the foreseeable future, significantly more than previously planned. We are thus reaffirming our goal of playing a leading role in the competition for the green steel markets of the future and supporting our customers in achieving their decarbonization targets. In addition, we are fulfilling our social responsibility and will already be reducing the CO₂ emissions of our production by just under 20% in the first step. That is already 5% of the Ruhr region's greenhouse gas emissions. Our tkH2Steel^® transformation project is the key to this."

With a capacity of 2.5Mt of direct reduced iron, the first plant will be a large-scale project. The coal-based blast furnaces will be replaced by hydrogen-powered direct reduction plants, and the iron produced there, which will have been directly reduced with hydrogen, will be liquefied for the first time in downstream, specially developed melting units to produce high-quality hot iron. All subsequent production steps can take place in the existing plant structure, including the steel mills, thus enabling an efficient transformation, says thyssenkrupp.