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Slovak steel producer US Steel Košice (USSK) has secured a €40m ($46m) state grant to build a new air separation unit (ASU) at its Košice steel plant.
It comes as part of a wider $350m state grant, issued through the EU Modernisation Fund, to support USSK’s move towards producing lower-carbon steel products.
The Slovak government also granted €310m ($356m) for a new electric arc furnace (EAF), expected to come online in 2030, with an estimated annual production capacity of 1.6 million tonnes.
The ASU and EAF represent a combined capital investment of around €900m ($1bn) and are expected to support industrial decarbonisation efforts in Slovakia and Europe.
The EU Modernisation Fund is financed from revenues generated by the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS). USSK said it is the largest industrial participant in the Slovak EU ETS system.
USSK will become a subsidiary of Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel effective 1 October and will rebrand to Nippon Steel Slovakia (NSSK), becoming the company’s core hub for its European operations.
According to the EU Emission Tracker, the steel and iron industries were responsible for 3.17 million tonnes of Slovakia’s carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent emissions in 2021, totalling 7.7% of the country’s emissions that year.
