Czech steel company Nova Huť, which took over the insolvent Liberty Ostrava works in October 2025, will source steel billets from Slovakia's Železiarne Podbrezová for its medium-section mill, adding to supplies from 7 Steel Nordic that began in August. The agreement reflects a plant whose blast furnaces & steel shop are idle & whose rolling mills run entirely on purchased semis while the company pursues a 200-tonne electric arc furnace, approved in principle by the regional authority & now out to tender, alongside a target of up to 1.5 million tonnes a year. Podbrezová's nearby, scrap-based, low-carbon billets fit both the interim need & the likely long-term model of Central European steel .