Japan’s Nippon Steel will invest about EUR 900 million in the Kosice steelworks, including a new electric furnace, as it prepares to make the eastern Slovak plant its main European production base.
The company signed agreements with the Robert Fico government on September 15, giving it access to up to EUR 350 million from the EU Modernisation Fund. Nippon Steel will invest in a new electric arc furnace and an air-separation unit, which produces industrial gases needed in steelmaking.
The furnace will have an annual production capacity of about 1.6 million tons and is expected to start operating in 2030. The air-separation unit should begin operating a year earlier.
The new furnace will operate alongside the plant’s existing blast furnaces rather than replacing them all. Nippon Steel says the investment will reduce CO2 emissions while maintaining steel production in Kosice.
The plant employs about 8,500 people, with further jobs linked to suppliers and contractors.
Of the public funding, EUR 310 million is earmarked for the electric furnace and EUR 40 million for the air-separation unit. The money does not come from Slovakia’s state budget but from the EU Modernisation Fund and will be distributed through the government.
Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer) credited Environment Minister Tomas Taraba, an SNS nominee, for the agreement.
“Thank you for another coup you have pulled off. You deserve the credit for this,” Fico told him at the signing.
The praise came as Taraba prepares to leave the government following a dispute with the Slovak National Party (SNS), which nominated him. Fico has submitted a proposal to dismiss him to President Peter Pellegrini, who will set a date after returning from a working trip to the United States. Fico, Taraba and SNS leader Andrej Danko agreed in May that Taraba would leave until the end of September if he and the SNS party failed to resolve their differences.
Opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS), meanwhile, disputed the government’s claim to credit for the funding.
“It is the minimum to use European money for what it is intended for – in this case, modernising industry,” said PS MEP Martin Hojsík.
From October 1, U. S. Steel Kosice will become a direct subsidiary of Nippon Steel and change its name to Nippon Steel Slovakia. The Japanese group says it will make the Slovak operation its core European hub. (The Slovak Spectator)