Lawmaker: Dunaferr electricity supplies secure

Electricity supplies for steelmaker ISD Dunaferr will be guaranteed for a temporary period thanks to a government decree instructing the electricity operator not to disconnect a supplier from the grid, a ruling Fidesz lawmaker has said.

Lajos Mészáros told a press conference on Thursday that Dunaferr, which employs thousands of people, operated in a very energy-demanding sector and has been weighed down by energy price hikes caused by the Russia-Ukraine war. The company has accumulated significant debt, and E.on had been planning to disconnect ISD Power, ISD Dunaferr’s current electricity supplier, from the grid at 12.30pm on Thursday, which would have resulted in an emergency, he added.

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The situation has been resolved for the time being, with energy supplies guaranteed until operations can be securely phased out in areas where a sudden stoppage could cause damage or industrial accidents, he said.

Mészáros noted that ISD Power also supplies electricity to other companies as well as industrial water and steam.

He said Dunaferr’s years of troubles were due to a botched privatization carried under Fidesz’s governing predecessors, and it had lost ground during the boom in the steel industry, by failing to make investments that would shield if from crises and raise its environmental protection profile.