Page 14 - Steel Metallurgy eMagazine Volume April 2026

COMPANY FOCUS

ten to fifteen years, drastically reduced
their own engineering teams due to
cost pressure. Their request is that the
technology partner takes over more and
more of that work and responsibility. We
also see increasing use of large consulting
companies to support clients, which is
much more common than it was ten or
twenty years ago.

Returning to India: it remains primarily
a BOF-driven market in large-scale
steelmaking, and the governmental
projects are the main driver at the
moment. There is a huge pressure
for localization —SAIL and other
government companies require more
than 50% local content for projects. We
have nearly 700 people working in India
across our network, and considering the
growth of the market, we believe that
local presence will only increase. Our
Primetals Technologies is currently implementing the HYFOR® and Smelter industrial demonstration localisation is already more than 50% for
plant in Linz together with its partners.
many portfolios. This is a major effort,
and we are fully committed to it.
voestalpine in Donawitz, Austria. Last expect in terms of long-term support
year we broke ground for the Hy4Smelt across the life of a plant? NM : SMS recently invited me to their
project, which combines a large new Sanand, Gujarat workshop, and
HYFOR®and a Smelter unit. We are NP : Customer expectations vary Danieli has a workshop near Chennai.
installing an industrial demonstration significantly by region. In India, Primetals’ competitors have made
plant on the premises of voestalpine in for example, customers request acquisitions — Metso by SMS, Neufer
Linz. This project is already in execution; very competitive pricing from their by Danieli. India’s Prime Minister has
we are cooperating with our investment technology partners, alongside a vision of a self-reliant India by 2047.
partners voestalpine and Rio Tinto. flexibility and the ability to respond to What is Primetals’ thinking with regard
This large investment is supported by a fast-changing environment. Indian to localisation of spares and service in
the European Commission (RFCS) and customers often have large in-house India?
Austrian government (aws and KPC). engineering teams, so very often we are
We expect start-up before the end of NP : First, I should mention that Pri-
2027, with real production results, metals acquired the licence from MET-
and commercial marketing from 2028 SO for pelletising plants in the Indian
onwards. The pilot tests in Donawitz market in May 2021. That has already led
using raw material from many different to three projects with pelletising plants
global iron ore suppliers were very at JSW and SAIL IISCO. So, we are also
successful, and we are confident that INDIA IS PROBABLY THE ONLY active in that space.
the industrial demonstration plant will REALLY GROWING MARKET FOR
continue to show strong results. THE STEEL INDUSTRY IN THE We currently have three workshops
NEXT 10 TO 30 YEARS in India - Turbhe and Patalganga in
NM : As Executive Vice President Mumbai and Jamshedpur— out of this,
responsible for global sales and the large facility in Patalganga near
marketing, how do you see customer Mumbai, is under expansion. We are
expectations evolving when it comes to also in cooperation with various existing
technology partners in the steel sector? developing solutions together with them. Indian workshops for fabrication. We
Primetals used to speak about life-cycle In other areas — particularly in Europe have a clear localization strategy and
partnership — what does the customer and the US — clients have, over the last targets, and we are progressing very well.

14 STEEL & METALLURGY APRIL 2026