The GMH Group's largest production site, the Georgsmarienhütte plant, is gearing up for the future. The company has invested around 21.5 million euros in an inductive single-bar annealing system (EVA), which will be installed in two stages. It operates fully automatically and thus also increases occupational safety. Previously, individual steel bars had to be reworked manually immediately after heating - this labor-intensive and risky process step is now eliminated.
Sustainable power operation
Operation by electricity is the special feature of plants of this type. This offers two major advantages over conventional gas-fired plants. The novel inductive heat treatment process significantly improves the steel properties in just one step. The use of electricity - the plant is designed to run on up to 100 percent green electricity - also ensures that the product carbon footprint (PCF) of the components manufactured by GMH and also the end products in which they are installed is significantly reduced.
EVA gives the GMH Group the ability to produce highly sophisticated induction quenched and tempered green steel that is optimally tailored to applications outside the automotive sector. These include, for example, screws and fasteners for wind turbines or for conveyor systems in industrial applications.
Funding from the German Federal Ministry of Economics
GMH Group has received funding of around 880,000 euros from the German Federal Ministry of Economics for this project, which will save around 2,800 tons of CO2 at the Georgsmarienhütte site alone by switching from natural gas to (eco)electricity. The funding decision for EVA was the first of its kind to be issued by the ministry as part of its "Decarbonization in Industry" program. It also covers other energy-intensive sectors in addition to the steel industry.
"We cannot serve all customer requests with the capacities of the existing plants - we will now change that and secure additional business opportunities. According to estimates, around 30,000 new wind turbines will be needed in Germany alone by 2030. Each individual wind turbine will require around 13 tons of steel for bolts and fasteners. Extrapolated to total demand, this gives a potential of more than 60,000 tons of steel per year. With this first of two new single-bar quenching and tempering lines, we are creating the basis for exploiting this enormous market potential for ourselves and playing an important role in this market of the future," , says Dr. Alexander Becker, CEO of the GMH Group.
Commissioning of the first plant is planned for the end of the year, with completion of the second stage next year. As a pioneer in steel production with electric arc furnaces, the GMH Group is thus setting another important milestone on the road to climate neutrality. With the additional investment program adopted, one of Europe's leading suppliers of bar, rolled and crude steel will bring its production facilities up to a new level in the coming years - in some cases setting new standards in steel production. In addition to the inductive single-bar tempering line, numerous other projects have already been initiated at several GMH Group companies to drive forward flexible and sustainable production.
