Thyssenkrupp Steel to put forward Duisburg green steel plan in August

ESSEN, Germany (Reuters) - Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe will put forward plans for a delayed green steel plant at Duisburg in August, its CEO said.

The plans are meant to enable Thyssenkrupp to switch to direct reduction steelmaking, to gradually replace the fossil fuels based, conventional blast furnace route at its site.

Germany's government last year earmarked 2 billion eurosin subsidies for the plan to support the steelmaker's goal of climate-neutral production by 2045 at the latest.

"We will put the first proposals on the table in August," Bernhard Osburg said at a Handelsblatt hydrogen conference.

He referred to a tender process for the production of hydrogen from renewable sources, for which initially Iqony, an offshoot of nearby coal power utility Steag, had been earmarked.

"This is safe for us and the provider side too," Osburg said during a panel session at the event on Thursday.

The proposal for the project was drawn up in 2022, when the role of providing hydrogen and oxygen from Duisburg-Walsum to Thyssenkrupp's plant was assigned to the energy company.

Getting a green light for Steag/Iqony to run the electrolysis plant is not a given, as the tender has to be free of discrimination, Iqony CEO and COO Ralf Schiele, who is also a Steag board member, said of the delays.

Osburg defended the due diligence involved.

"There are 2 billion (euros) of taxpayer money involved," he said. "You can't decide that in a back room."

(Reporting by Vera Eckert, editing by Alexander Smith)