Ground-breaking ceremony for large-scale shredder plant in Salzgitter

• A further building block for SALCOS^® - Salzgitter AG Low CO₂ Steelmaking
• Processing old scrap into high-quality scrap grades

On September 1, 2025, the ground-breaking ceremony for the construction of a new large-scale shredder plant for steel scrap took place on the premises of the DEUMU Deutsche Metall- und Erz-Union GmbH subsidiary in Salzgitter. Thanks to this plant, which cost around 30 million euros, it will be increasingly viable in future to process high-quality scrap grades from the quantities of old scrap that accumulate.

Steel scrap is already an important secondary raw material for steel production, both by way of the primary steel route involving blast furnaces and converter steelworks as well as via the electric arc route. The significance of steel scrap and the demands on its quality will continue to rise due to the transformation towards low-CO₂ steel production. This is why the Salzgitter Group is investing now, because the SALCOS^® - Salzgitter AG Low CO₂ Steelmaking program is set to embark on production in the first half of 2027.

Accompanying this, DEUMU has worked with internal partners from research and production to develop the 4 SALCOS^® scrap grade, which is attuned to the characteristics of the SALCOS^® production process. The commissioning of the new unit also coincides with the launch of the first stage of SALCOS^®.

Sandrina Sieverdingbeck, Managing Director DEUMU commented: "The construction of the new large shredder is a significant step towards making even better use of existing secondary raw materials such as scrap. This represents a key contribution to consistently pursuing the course we are charting towards a sustainable circular economy. It is also another important building block for the production of "green steel" as part of SALCOS^® - Salzgitter Low CO₂ Steelmaking."

Partners in the construction of the new shredder are the Düsseldorf-based machine and plant manufacturer Lindemann GmbH and the Belgian company Lybover.

The structural steel for the welded parts of the new shredder, with a total tonnage of 112 tons, comes mainly from Ilsenburger Grobblech GmbH (ILG), a Salzgitter AG subsidiary.