Green steel

At the group level, ArcelorMittal is aiming to reduce its CO2 emissions by 30% by the year 2030 in a bid to be fully carbon-neutral by 2050. As the steel giant announced in mid-October, hydrogen technology is at the heart of these objectives, with it expecting to be able to deliver 30,000 tonnes of “green steel” by the end of 2020, and then 120,000 tonnes and 600,000 tonnes by 2021 and 2022, respectively.  

In its 2020 Climate Action in Europe report, ArcelorMittal president and CFO, and CEO of ArcelorMittal Europe, Aditya Mittal, stated, however, that the “right policy” is required for such steelmaking. 

“We need the support of the EU and member states to ensure we have well-designed policy, including available finance, access to alternative clean energy sources at competitive prices and public guarantees on initial ramp-up projects,” he said. 

“Furthermore, a carbon border adjustment is required to support a successful transition to low-carbon steelmaking during the implementation of the EU’s Green Deal, while other regions may not be working at the same pace.”

Energy efficiency

At the local level to follow the transition to a more circular production, it signed a five-year partnership on 29 October with the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (List) for collaboration on research and development in a bid to optimise efficiency of energy and resources.

The first step in this involves a deep dive look into opportunities and requirements to enhance the efficiency of steel installations, the output of which will serve as a springboard for future R&D projects. 

This article originally appeared in the 2021 Forecast edition of Delano released on 16 December.