Hungary’s largest steel producer gets Chinese support for green upgrade

China’s CISDI Engineering has signed a memorandum of understanding with China Export and Credit Insurance Corporation (Sinosure) on underwriting 1.3 billion euros in financing for two 150-tonne capacity electric arc furnaces it is supplying to Indian-owned Liberty Dunaujvaros, Liberty Steel Group said on Monday.

CISDI representatives announced the MoU during a visit to Liberty Dunaújváros’s steelworks in central Hungary. The CISDI officials also consulted with experts from Switzerland’s NPT and Germany’s RCG on optimising systems at the base and building ancillary support for electricity, gas, water, and steam.

The 1.3 billion euros of investments, which include upgrades of the hot-rolled mill and galvanising line and the installation of new production lines, will turn the steelworks into a supplier for the local defence and automotive industries.

Liberty Steel Europe CEO Thomas Gangl said the project was advancing “on schedule”.

CISDI chairman Xiao Peng said the MoU with Sinosure was a “significant step” in reducing the CO2 emissions of the 3 million-tonne capacity mill.

Liberty Steel acquired the assets of troubled steelmaker Dunaferr in a liquidation procedure in the summer of 2023 for about 20 billion forints (EUR 50.2m).

As we wrote earlier, Hungarian steel maker Liberty Dunaújváros has started shutting down its two coke ovens, details HERE.

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