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Europe's steelmakers are under pressure to cut carbon emissions
while maintaining profitability in a market where there is
fierce competition, mainly from China, while pollution permit
costs are spiralling higher.
"We are looking for partners from the energy sector to deliver
renewable power," Geert Van Poelvoorde, the new chief executive
of ArcelorMittal Europe told Reuters in an interview.
"We want to replace carbon and increase the use of scrap metal."
The company estimates it would cost between 1 and 1.5 billion
euros ($1.18-1.77 billion) to transform its Bremen and
Eisenhuettenstadt (EKO) plants, Van Poelvoorde said.
ArcelorMittal's so-called "smart carbon" process would use
carbon recycled from bioenergy, green electricity, and carbon
capture and usage.
The company would close a blast furnace in each of the two
plants and build electric arc furnaces for scrap smelting.
It would build a direct reduction of iron ore (DRI) plant at EKO,
which could be run on gas instead of coal as a transition fuel
initially, and later with hydrogen, which is considered
carbon-neutral when derived from renewable electricity.
The DRI process cuts CO2 versus the integrated blast furnace
route by two thirds.
The Bremen and EKO plans "have the potential to save five
million tonnes of CO2 per year. That is significant," he said.
Meanwhile in France the French Finance Minister said during a
visit to ArcelorMittal's Fos-sur-Mer plant in sourthern France
that ArcelorMittal was investing 63 million euros in cutting the
plant's carbon emissions, which will include a 15 million euros
subsidy from the French state.
($1 = 0.8480 euros)
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