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Salzgitter Aktiengesellschaft: Another milestone on the course to low CO2 steel production - Federal Minister Svenja Schulze hands over funding approval

DGAP-News: Salzgitter Aktiengesellschaft / Key word(s): Sustainability Salzgitter Aktiengesellschaft: Another milestone on the course to low CO2 steel production - Federal Minister Svenja Schulze hands over funding approval 04.12.2020 / 12:27 The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

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Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze today handed over the funding approval for the construction of the first direct reduced iron (DRI) plant to be operated flexibly by hydrogen and natural gas. Stephan Weil, Minister President of Lower Saxony, and Frank Klingebiel, Lord Mayor of the City of Salzgitter, also participated in this important event.

As Prof. Dr.-Ing. Heinz Jörg Fuhrmann, Chief Executive Officer of Salzgitter AG stated: "The construction of the first DRI plant flexibly fueled by natural gas and hydrogen enables the Salzgitter Group to consolidate its role as a pioneer in the decarbonization of the steel industry. Operating this smaller installation will allow us to gain the necessary know-how to be able to run production with plants built to industrial scale within a few years. Our industry will be able to play an outstanding role in achieving the defined climate targets if policymakers step up the pace in implementing the regulatory and economic policy framework for facilitating the transformation process. In this context, our SALCOS (Salzgitter Low CO2 Steelmaking) technology concept is the best offering across all industries and sectors in terms of the balance between investment and specific power consumption geared to realizing CO2 savings."

Salzgitter Group has created the basis in SALCOS for the virtually CO2 free production of steel by joining forces with its partners from business and research. The key components consist of power generated from renewable sources and harnessed for the production of green hydrogen through electrolysis. In direct reduction plants, this replaces the carbon currently used in the conventional blast furnace process for producing iron from iron ore. The Salzgitter Group has already installed several wind turbines and hydrogen electrolyzers.