Interviewed by Laura Bergami, the director of San Zeno Naviglio plant Giordano Streghi opened the doors of the steel mill and welcomed Teletutto cameras to explain the targets reached in the last years in terms of production, environmental impact and process innovation. He also presented the future goals, which have been already set and are focused on sustainability and new skills.
The first part of the interview: technologies and skills
Over the last years, Duferco launched a plan to increase the efficiency of the processes, with the goal of combining economic competitiveness and environmental sustainability. We realized a pilot plant for the secondary metallurgy: we always need innovative technologies and specific skills and so we collaborate with University of Brescia and with Catholic University in Milan to find resources and further develop our processes.
In the next years, we intend to strongly invest in technology and competence. Indeed, the issue of our employees’ skills has a pivotal role: therefore, we are putting great effort for collaboration with universities and research institutes, as competence and new technologies will radically change the approach to steel industry”.
The second part of the interview: innovation, sustainability and the project for the new rolling mill
In the second half of the interview with Teletutto, Giordano Streghi talks about sustainability, innovation and circular economy and describes features and benefits of the new rolling mill.
“The themes of innovation and sustainability are closely related. In order to have a competitive company, we must focus on technology innovation. For many years now, we have been investing on those assets, trying to develop digitization and 4.0 technologies skills. Moreover, today no productive company can avoid focusing on the environmental impact of its activities.
Therefore, the project for the new rolling mill combines economic competitiveness and environmental sustainability. It involves an overall investment of 180 million euros and is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2022. It will employ around 150 people, not considering the ancillary companies. Since the beginning, engineering and projecting activities have been focused on environmental issues. The goal is to set a new benchmark, in Europe and beyond, in terms of competitiveness and reduction of impacts. This will be possible also through a long-term PPA, which will allow to power the rolling mill only by renewable energy”.
