By Pierre Bertrand

Voestalpine said Wednesday that full commissioning of its new Kapfenberg advanced steel plant is expected within its current fiscal year and that the plant will reach full production capacity by the end of 2023.

The plant, which is the Austrian steel company's largest investment in recent years, will enable it to expand in both tool and special steels.

It plans to annually produce 205,000 metric tons of special steels dedicated for aerospace, oil and natural gas, automotive and toolmaking industries, the company said.

Voestalpine warned that potential cost overruns could reach as high as 30% over the 350 million euro ($374.2 million) initial investment plan due to difficult conditions and delays incurred by the coronavirus pandemic.

The new plant will initially operate in tandem with the company's existing electric steel mill in Kapfenberg, a Voestalpine spokeswoman said.

"From 2024 the new special steel plant will be in full operation on its own. Until then, the new special steel plant will run in intermittent parallel operation with the old existing one," the spokeswoman said.

Write to Pierre Bertrand at pierre.bertrand@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 07, 2023 08:16 ET (12:16 GMT)