# Italy's Electric Arc Furnaces: 23.9Mt Capacity and Three Bets on the Future > Italy produces 90% of its steel via EAF. Three new furnace projects are reshaping the map. Here's what EAF operators need to manage. **URL:** https://www.gosmarter.ai/blog/state-of-eafs-in-italy/ **Date:** 2026-04-03 **Author:** Steph Locke **Categories:** blog, news **Tags:** manufacturing, sustainability, data-strategy, artificial-intelligence --- Italy makes 90% of its steel in [Electric Arc Furnaces](/hubs/metals-manufacturing-glossary/#electric-arc-furnace-eaf) (EAFs). The European Union (EU) average sits at 44%. That gap is not an accident. It reflects decades of deliberate structural choices that now put Italian mills at the sharp end of Europe's green steel transition, placing them squarely in the path of some of the continent's largest capital investments in steelmaking. At the end of 2025, Italy had 26 EAFs in operation, with combined crude steel capacity of 23.9 million tonnes per year. Three significant new investments are set to raise those figures further. Together, they will add well over 2 terawatt hours (TWh) of additional annual power demand to Italy's industrial grid. They will reshape the country's position in European steelmaking for the next generation. The operational picture for any team running or planning an EAF in Italy today is clear: more capacity, higher energy pressure, and no margin for sloppy data management. ## Why Italy Became Europe's EAF Capital Economics drove Italy's move to electric steelmaking long before decarbonisation became a European policy priority. Post-war Italy had limited domestic iron ore reserves but a ready supply of scrap metal from industrial reconstruction. EAFs, which melt recycled scrap rather than smelting ore, made financial sense from the start. The result was a dense cluster of scrap-based mini-mills, concentrated in the north and centre of the country, focused on long products: rebar, sections, and wire rod for the construction and engineering sectors. **Alfa Acciai**, based in Brescia, is one of the largest examples, producing up to 2.5 million tonnes per year. It is the kind of operation that grew up in Italy's EAF tradition and has spent decades refining it. By the time the rest of Europe began its painful reckoning with blast furnace decarbonisation, Italy had largely already made the switch. That structural head start explains the 90% figure. It also explains why Italy is now the test bed for the next generation of EAF investment. ## Three Investments That Will Reshape the Map ### Acciaierie Venete: New Furnace in Padova, Summer 2026 Acciaierie Venete is installing a new 100-tonne EAF at its Padova site, supplied by [Danieli](https://www.danieli.com/en/). The target output is 750,000 tonnes per year of green engineering steels. The furnace is expected to be operational in summer 2026. When it comes online, the new unit will add approximately **0.5 TWh** of additional power demand per year. That is a significant draw from a single furnace and underlines the scale of energy commitment each new EAF installation represents for the grid. This is not just a capacity addition. New EAFs of this generation are designed with data integration as a standard feature, not an afterthought. The operational complexity of managing scrap inputs, tracking heat numbers, and producing compliant mill certificates does not simplify at higher volumes. It compounds. ### Metinvest and Danieli at Piombino: A €2.5bn Green Steel Overhaul The largest project currently underway is a joint venture between [Metinvest](https://metinvest.com/en/) and Danieli at Piombino, Tuscany. The total investment is **€2.5 billion**. The plan involves two [Direct Reduced Iron](/hubs/metals-manufacturing-glossary/#direct-reduced-iron-dri) (DRI) EAFs, targeting 2.7 million tonnes per year of hot-rolled steel. The DRI-EAF route has two stages. First, the process reduces iron ore to DRI using natural gas or, in principle, green hydrogen. Then an Electric Arc Furnace melts it. It produces substantially lower carbon emissions than blast furnace steelmaking and underpins Europe's most ambitious green steel projects. Piombino has a long steelmaking history. Its workforce knows heavy industry. This is not just a furnace upgrade; it is a fundamental change in production chemistry. The first EAF is targeted for around 2029. At full operation, the project will add an estimated **1.8 TWh** to Italy's annual industrial electricity consumption. As with all projects of this scale, the timeline carries political and operational uncertainty. ### Acciaierie d'Italia: Taranto's Complicated Transition Italy's only remaining large-scale blast furnace operation sits at Taranto, run by Acciaierie d'Italia. Italy's government has authorised the site for up to **6 million tonnes per year** and mandated a transition to EAF-based production. Taranto is the outlier in this picture. It spent years entangled in legal, environmental, and political complications. The rest of the Italian steel sector moved forward while Taranto sat in limbo. The transition timeline remains subject to ongoing uncertainty. When Taranto completes the shift to EAF steelmaking, it will be the single largest blast furnace conversion in Italian history. Italy's already dominant EAF share will push even higher. ## Italy's Energy Problem Is Not Going Away Italy's steel sector consumed an estimated **13.8 TWh** of electricity in 2025. That figure represents 42% of the country's total industrial electricity demand. No other sector comes close. Italian electricity prices are structurally high. The grid depends heavily on imported gas. Global gas market volatility flows directly into the cost of every heat. EAF steelmaking is electricity-intensive by design. Electric arcs melt scrap above 1,600°C. That draws enormous power over a short melting cycle. When power prices spike, margins compress immediately and without warning. The new capacity coming online at Padova and Piombino will push that electricity demand higher still. For existing operators, the pressure to extract maximum yield from every heat is not new. What is new is the scale. Investors and customers alike now expect new facilities to manage it properly from day one. High electricity prices do not just make EAF steelmaking more expensive. Every tonne of avoidable scrap costs twice what it should. Same for every missed cut and every manual process that slows throughput. ## What Running an EAF Actually Demands The public conversation about EAFs focuses on their carbon credentials. The day-to-day operational reality is considerably less tidy. An EAF charges a blend of scrap metal grades. The quality and chemical composition of that scrap varies by batch, by supplier, and often by day. Getting the chemistry of a heat right requires careful scrap management. That means tracking which grades are in the yard, what the residual element content is, and how to blend efficiently to hit the target specification. Every heat produces a **mill certificate** (also called a [Mill Test Certificate (MTC)](/hubs/metals-manufacturing-glossary/#mill-test-certificate-mtc)). That document records the heat number, chemical analysis, and mechanical properties of the steel produced. Downstream fabricators, service centres, and construction contractors need it before they can use the steel. A rebar supplier who cannot produce the MTC for a given heat number cannot deliver to any properly run site. At the volumes Italian EAF mills operate, this process generates thousands of certificates per year. Managing them manually is a recognised operational burden across the sector. That means filing PDFs, re-entering heat numbers into [Enterprise Resource Planning](/hubs/metals-manufacturing-glossary/#erp-vs-specialist-tools) (ERP) systems, and searching for missing documents before a customer audit. Cutting plans add a further layer of complexity. EAF mills produce billets or coils that are cut to customer order. Every cut that generates excessive offcut is lost yield. When electricity costs spike and scrap prices are volatile, there is no fat in the margin for avoidable material waste. The combination of energy pressure, variable scrap inputs, and rigorous traceability requirements makes EAF operations one of the most data-intensive environments in metals manufacturing. The mills that manage that data well protect their margins. The ones that rely on manual processes absorb every market shock in full. ## New Facilities, New Expectations The investments at Padova and Piombino are not being built to replicate the workflows of older mills. They are being designed as digital-first facilities, with data integration and process automation built in from the architecture stage. That shift creates both an opportunity and a benchmark. For the engineers and production managers who will run these sites, the expectation from day one is clear. Operational tools must be connected. Traceability must be automated. Yield data must be live, not reconstructed at the end of the month from paper records. That same expectation is also spreading to existing Italian EAF operators. Customers, auditors, and investors are all asking for better data. The mills that can provide it will win business. The ones that cannot will be managing the deficit for years. ## Where GoSmarter Fits the EAF Operator's Toolkit GoSmarter built its suite specifically for metals manufacturers dealing with this complexity: variable scrap inputs, high-volume certificate management, cutting optimisation, and real-time inventory visibility. [GoSmarter's Mill Certificate Automation](/hubs/mill-cert-automation/) reads EAF mill certificates automatically, extracting heat numbers, chemical compositions, and mechanical test results from PDF documents without manual re-entry. For a mill producing hundreds of heats per week, that is not a convenience. It is an operational necessity. [Scrap, Waste & Yield Optimisation](/hubs/scrap-waste-yield-optimisation/) tracks material in, yield out, and waste generated at every stage of production. EAF operators juggle variable scrap grades and tight electricity costs. Accurate real-time yield data changes what decisions are possible on the shop floor. [GoSmarter's Cutting Optimiser](/products/cutting-optimiser/) applies algorithmic cutting plans to minimise offcut waste across a batch of customer orders. Fewer remnants mean more shipped tonnes from the same volume of melted steel. For a mill supplying engineering steels to tight dimensional specifications, every cut counts. [Inventory Management](/products/inventory-management/) gives operators a live picture of stock by grade, heat number, and length: the data structure that mirrors how steel businesses actually work, rather than how a generic warehouse system assumes they do. New greenfield EAF investments are the natural fit. But older Italian EAF operators running manual processes on ageing systems have the same underlying requirements. A greenfield site builds good habits from day one. An established mill retrofits them later. Both are achievable. One is considerably cheaper. ## Go Deeper - [Mill Certificate Automation](/hubs/mill-cert-automation/) — how GoSmarter reads EAF mill certs automatically - [Scrap, Waste & Yield Optimisation](/hubs/scrap-waste-yield-optimisation/) — cut the waste coming off your EAF charge - [Cutting Plans (Cutting Optimiser)](/products/cutting-optimiser/) — optimise every cut to protect yield - [Inventory Management](/products/inventory-management/) — track your scrap and finished stock in one place ## Frequently Asked Questions {{< faq question="How does Italy's EAF share compare to the rest of Europe?" >}} Italy produces approximately 90% of its crude steel via Electric Arc Furnaces, against an EU average of around 44%. Germany, the continent's largest steel producer, still relies heavily on blast furnace production. Italy's EAF dominance is the product of decades of investment in scrap-based mini-mill steelmaking. It now puts Italian mills in a stronger position than most European competitors. The market is moving towards lower-carbon production routes, and Italy is already there. {{< /faq >}} {{< faq question="What is a DRI-EAF and why does it matter for green steel?" >}} Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) is produced by reducing iron ore using a reducing gas, typically natural gas or green hydrogen, without fully melting it. The resulting material is then melted in an Electric Arc Furnace. The DRI-EAF route produces significantly lower carbon emissions than conventional blast furnace steelmaking. It can reach near-zero emissions when the process runs on green hydrogen. Metinvest's planned Piombino project uses this route, making it one of the most carbon-progressive steelmaking investments in southern Europe currently in development. {{< /faq >}} {{< faq question="Why are electricity costs so critical for EAF steelmakers in Italy?" >}} An Electric Arc Furnace melts steel using electricity. The arc itself operates at temperatures above 1,600°C and draws substantial power over a short melting cycle. Energy typically accounts for 20% to 30% of an EAF's total production cost. Italy's electricity prices are among the highest in Europe, driven by dependence on imported gas. That means every inefficiency in scrap charging, yield management, or cutting optimisation gets amplified directly in the energy bill. Operational efficiency is not a nice-to-have for Italian EAF operators. It is margin protection. {{< /faq >}} {{< faq question="When will the Metinvest Piombino DRI-EAF project be operational?" >}} The first EAF at Piombino is targeted for around 2029, with the full two-furnace project expected to reach its 2.7 million tonnes per year capacity in the late 2020s. The €2.5 billion investment is a joint venture between Metinvest and Danieli. As with all projects at this scale, the timeline carries uncertainties around permitting, equipment supply chains, and market conditions. Danieli has a strong track record delivering large EAF projects across Italy and Europe. It is both technology supplier and joint venture partner. {{< /faq >}} {{< faq question="What tools do EAF operators need to manage data complexity?" >}} EAF operations generate dense data flows: scrap charge records, heat chemistry results, mill certificates, cutting plans, and inventory positions all need to be tracked and connected. New greenfield facilities are being built with data integration as a standard expectation. Existing mills that still manage these flows manually face compounding costs as output and compliance requirements grow. Purpose-built tools for certificate processing, yield tracking, cutting optimisation, and inventory management make the difference. A mill with the right tools can respond to market pressure quickly. One without them is always catching up. {{< /faq >}} _Source: [Argus Media — New Furnaces to Support Italian Steel Power Demand](https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news-and-insights/latest-market-news/2809650-new-furnaces-to-support-italian-steel-power-demand)_