German steelmaker Salzgitter AG plans to build a new large-scale shredder to secure its supply of high-quality scrap for "green steel" production. The company announced last week it would be investing around €30m to install the shredder plant at its integrated steelworks site in Salzgitter, in the state of Lower Saxony.
Its partners in constructing the new shredder are Düsseldorf-based machinery and plant supplier Lindemann and the Belgian firm Lybover. The two companies will support Salzgitter’s subsidiary Deumu (Deutsche Erz- und Metall-Union GmbH) during the construction of the 189-metre-long and 66-metre-wide shredding line, which is scheduled to start up in mid-2026.
With this investment, the group aims to "strategically realign our scrap management at the Salzgitter site", said Deumu’s managing director Sandrina Sieverdingbeck. "In this way, we are aiming to expand our scrap recycling based on high-quality steel scrap in order to enable the future production of low CO2 steel," she added.
The project is part of the group’s "Salcos" ("Salzgitter Low CO2 Steelmaking") project. Concurrently, Deumu is working with internal partners to develop a new scrap grade which meets the specifications of the future green steel production process.
Two years ago, Salzgitter presented its 2030 strategy, including a goal to expand its use of use of scrap inputs in steel production by more than 50 per cent to reach a total of 3 million tonnes by 2030. The conversion to low-CO2 steel production at the Salzgitter site is slated to be completed by the end of 2033, the company said last week.
"We know that – driven by the circular economy – global demand for scrap is set to increase significantly. Demand for high-quality steel scrap will trend upwards, particularly due to the increasing electrification of steel routes for CO2-reduced steel worldwide," commented Gunnar Groebler, executive board chairman of Salzgitter AG. It was primarily modern shredding and sorting technologies which enabled these high-quality recycled raw material grades to be extracted from obsolete scrap. "Consequently, the new shredder is an investment in product quality and, above all, serves to secure our own future supply," Mr Groebler said.
