In June, SIJ Acroni celebrated the completion of the upgraded annealing and coating line for non-oriented electrical steel with a symbolic handover ceremony. The line is designed to handle all stages of the heat treatment process, ensuring the required electromagnetic and mechanical properties stipulated by the most stringent standards and, most importantly, meeting the technical specifications of customers in the automotive industry. At the same time, the production line’s energy efficiency was improved, increasing annual production capacity by more than 10%.
“After three months in operation, we are pleased to announce that we have reached our goals: thanks to years of experience, expert mentoring, and investments in state-of-the-art technology, we successfully produced non-oriented electrical steel for electric motors with the upgraded production line. Additionally, we improved energy efficiency and reduced the CO2 emissions on the ACL from 134 to 54 kilograms per tonne of processed material, which translates to a 60 per cent reduction,” saidMag. Branko Žerdoner, CEO of SIJ Acroni.
The ACL upgrade marks a strategic investment for SIJ Acroni. With this, non-oriented electrical steel will solidify its status as the third pillar of their business, joining stainless steel quarto plates and special steel.
“With the investment in the AC line, we are proving that producing the most advanced and highest quality electrical steels is also possible through circular economy, which was previously difficult to imagine for many customers in the automotive industry. This investment opens doors for SIJ Acroni to collaborate with companies seeking to reduce the carbon footprint in their supply chains,”said Tibor Šimonka, Senior Vice President of SIJ Group.
As a steel producer catering to niche steel markets, SIJ Acroni produces steel from secondary raw materials according to circular economy principles. Since building the original ACL in 1976, SIJ Acroni has produced non-oriented electrical steel with a pioneering technological production process through the EAF route. In 1987, they shut down the last blast furnace and have since produced all steel exclusively from recycled steel scrap in an electric arc furnace, without using pig iron, iron ore or DRI. SIJ Acroni’s electrical steel contains on average 97% recycled materials. The total carbon footprint (Scope 1, 2, 3) of 689 kilograms of CO2 per tonne of product made with renewable energy ranks SIJ Acroni at the top of the world’s steel mills.
