Salzgitter said through the reline of the furnace, it is taking a “key operational step toward securing its hot metal base within the context of the incremental transformation phase toward low-CO₂ steel production by 2033.”
 
Gerd Baresch, managing director technology for Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH, said, “We are gradually abandoning the blast furnace route and have already started to install the process route for new aggregates such as the direct reduction plants and the electric arc furnaces. Accordingly, we will be decommissioning one of our blast furnaces as early as 2026.”
 
Blast Furnace A was commissioned in 1977 and has undergone several relines. It has an annual capacity of approximately 2 million tons of pig iron.