voestalpine has largely completed installation of its new electric arc furnace at Donawitz in Austria and begun cold commissioning in sections of the plant. The first checks cover conveying equipment, hydraulic systems, electrical installations, cooling circuits and automation. Steel production has not started; first melts at Donawitz are planned for the first half of 2027 as part of the company’s greentec steel programme.
Nearly 900,000 individual components weighing a combined 8,500 tonnes were transported to the steelworks by ship, rail and road. The furnace assembly includes upper and lower vessel sections, a tilting structure and the infrastructure needed to connect the equipment to its power and utility systems. Individual loads of up to 94 tonnes were placed using heavy lifting equipment, with cranes rated at up to 650 tonnes for the most demanding operations.
More than 70 companies have worked on the installation, around 90% of them Austrian, with approximately 500 specialist workers involved at the site. Danieli is coordinating installation and commissioning of the principal furnace equipment. Structural engineering, pipework, electrical installation and automation work must be brought together before the process plant can operate as a complete system.
Cold commissioning tests the installed machinery and supporting services without melting steel. Mechanical drives, hydraulics, sensors and control systems can be checked through their intended movements and responses, while cooling and other utility circuits are examined for correct operation. The integrated tests follow assembly and connection of individual components, allowing faults and adjustments to be addressed before hot commissioning.
The furnace will use electric arcs to melt metallic charge materials as Donawitz moves part of its production away from conventional steelmaking. That change alters the energy and material inputs of the process; the total carbon benefit will depend on factors including the electricity supply and feedstock. Once operating at planned capacity, voestalpine expects the Donawitz furnace to produce approximately 850,000 tonnes of steel with reduced carbon dioxide emissions annually. This is a future production target, not output achieved during commissioning.
The Donawitz work is being carried out alongside an electric arc furnace programme at Linz. The company puts its initial investment across the two locations at approximately €1.5 billion and plans first melts at both works in the first half of 2027. The company has set a programme-level objective to cut its carbon dioxide emissions by up to 30% by 2029 against a 2019 baseline, dependent on the conversion proceeding as planned.
Cold commissioning will continue across the furnace and connected services before the plant advances to hot commissioning and steelmaking trials.
