The SIJ Group’s most important strategic investment of the year was launched at SIJ Acroni: an AOD furnace costing EUR 30M. With the new machine SIJ Acroni plans to increase its capacities for the production of stainless and special steels, reinforcing the company’s position in niche steel markets.
The new AOD furnace has successfully concluded the second multi-million investment of strategic importance in the last two years. Investing in a new AOD (argon oxygen decarburization) furnace to increase production capacities for stainless steel quarto plates and, consequently, special steels is an important step towards realizing the SIJ Group’s Steel Division strategy by 2020.
On this occasion Slavko Kanalec, the Managing Director of SIJ Acroni, highlighted that the purpose of the new AOD furnace is to further reinforce the company’s position in the stainless steel market, although SIJ Acroni has been Europe’s leading manufacturer in the segment for some years now.
In addition to increasing the production capacities, the new furnace will speed up the production of stainless steels, thus freeing up additional capacities for other production programs.
