Low slab supply stops Dunaferr rolling lines

Hungarian steelmaker Dunaferr has stopped rolling coils because it has run out of substrate, sources close to the mill told Argus today.

Liberty Steel acquired the Dunaferr plant out of liquidation earlier this year. It idled the only operational blast furnace at the site in August, and said it would feed the rolling lines with slab to allow rolling to continue. Dunaferr received 4,000t of slab from Galati more than month ago, but has not received any slab since then, the sources suggest.

A cargo of around 1,000t is arriving at Dunaujvaros port soon, sources close to the government suggest. Liberty operates the mill on a campaign-by-campaign basis, Argus understands. The company declined to comment.

Some market sources believe Liberty may have booked Asian slab for the site, but none has arrived yet.

The only unit currently operating at Dunaferr is the coking plant, which supplies Liberty's Galati site in Romania with some coke for its blast furnace.

Sources believe that Liberty may idle the remaining blast furnaces at Galati and Ostrava in the Czech Republic, because of working capital constraints. It recently announced that it would idle the largest coke oven at Ostrava because it is "highly inefficient" and "unprofitable".

It has also stopped producing coke at its Whyalla site in Australia, with a move to electric arc furnace-based output planned from 2025. The firm is importing coke, mainly from Asia, to feed the operational blast furnace until electric arc furnace-based production begins.

Liberty is trying to sell its plate mill in Clydebrige, Scotland, after a "review of commercial options", a spokesperson told Argus last week.

By Colin Richardson