voestalpine invests €1.5bn in green steel production
Saturday 12th September 2026 on 09:30 in
Austria
voestalpine is investing around €1.5 billion to convert steel production at its Linz plant, ORF reported. A new electric arc furnace is expected to begin operating next spring, using electricity instead of coke, coal and gas.
The furnace is part of the company’s greentec steel project, which voestalpine says will cut its carbon dioxide emissions by around 30 percent. That would equal about 5 percent of Austria’s total emissions.
The project is being built while the plant remains in full operation. Voestalpine chief executive Herbert Eibensteiner said the work created logistical challenges because a new steelworks was being built inside the existing one.
The furnace requires large amounts of electricity, prompting a major expansion of the power infrastructure around the plant. A 220-kilovolt line now runs about 25 metres underground from a substation to the new building, where steel will be melted in large vessels.
Voestalpine said the new equipment should not create additional noise because the electric furnace will be enclosed in a concrete basin.
About 550 companies are currently working on the project, around 90 percent of them from Austria. A new laboratory for liquid steel samples is also being built.
The blast furnace known as Furnace 5 is expected to be taken offline by the end of 2027. Voestalpine said replacing all conventional blast furnaces would take longer, with the company aiming to exit traditional blast furnace technology completely by 2050.