2023-11-23 05:15:00
The multinational steel company ArcelorMittal has entrusted the Spanish engineering company Técnicas Reunidas with the decarbonization projects of four of its European factories. These are the factory complexes in Ghent (Belgium), Dunkirk (France) and Bremen (Germany), as well as another in Central Europe whose identity could not be confirmed, although it could be Eisenhuttenstadt, also in Germany, where the multinational also plans an investment to suppress CO2 emissions.
The entrustment of the engineering works to the Spanish company occurs when uncertainty persists regarding the decision that the steel multinational is going to make regarding its Asturian steel headquarter, for which its investment committee approved the conversion of the current steelworks in July. conventional Gijón by a hybrid electric furnace, but has not yet made a decision on the most ambitious action committed: the direct reduction iron ore furnace (DRI), fueled with green hydrogen and which, called to replace blast furnace B, that consumes coal, would guarantee the continuity in the future of the integral condition of the productive process in Veriña.
The Spanish Government, with prior authorization from the European Commission, granted aid of 450 million on April 4 to ArcelorMittal to build the DRI. It was the first plan endorsed by European authorities. The aid is justified to offset the costs associated with a still immature technology and the current higher price of green hydrogen compared to natural gas and coal.
The total amount of the partial decarbonization project of the Gijón factory, announced in July 2021, was then budgeted at 1,000 million. The DRI is the most expensive implementation of those planned.
ArcelorMittal, which accepted the Government’s aid but subject to certain conditions, demands, as the Spanish steel industry association (Unesid) did the day before yesterday, longer deadlines to carry out the decarbonization works subsidized by the European Next Generation funds (the deadline is runs out in March 2026) and above all guarantees of energy with cheaper, stable and predictable prices, and that allow clean steel manufactured in Spain to compete in costs with those of at least Germany and France.
Although the decarbonization project of the Asturian capital was the first plan that ArcelorMittal processed before the European Competition authorities and although it was also the first of the multinational to receive permission to access public aid, several highly relevant manufacturing sites have taken advantage of the Asturian complex. On the 11th, ArcelorMittal announced that the plans to provide DRI and green steel plants at the Ghent (Belgium) and Dunkirk (France) plants had already entered the basic engineering phase. Both factories constitute a highly relevant axis in the production structure of the multinational in Europe.
It is now known that both projects and the one in Bremen (Germany) have been entrusted to Técnicas Reunidas, according to “Expansión”. Técnicas Reunidas, consulted in this regard, stated that “the company declines to make statements regarding this matter.”
LA NEW SPAIN has learned, however, that, in addition to these three projects, the order for Técnicas Reunidas includes the execution of a fourth decarbonization plan for another ArcelorMittal Central European factory.
The progress of work in the engineering phase for some European sites of the world’s largest steel manufacturer (excluding China) adds uncertainty to the Asturian investment plan due to the lack of news about the DRI. The company has yet to reach an agreement with labor representation on the employment plan, given that decarbonization, as outlined in July 2021, would entail the elimination of 1,000 of ArcelorMittal’s current 5,000 direct jobs in Asturias. The 2022-2025 collective agreement is also pending agreement after an understanding was reached in May with UGT, CC OO and USO on the VIII Framework Agreement, applicable in Asturias, Etchevarri, Lesaka-Legasa and Sagunto.
It is known that contacts between the Spanish management of ArcelorMittal and the central government are constant to try to solve the problems that the company faces, although the scope of action of the national executive is limited because it is conditioned by a European resolution. The Minister of Ecological Transition, Industry and Economic Development of the Principality, Nieve Roqueñí, said days ago: “We are worried, but we have to wait,” in the confidence, she indicated, that “everything ends in the best way.”
The plans
Gijon. ArcelorMittal announced in July 2021 a plan to partially decarbonize the Veriña factory by building an electric furnace to replace the current steelworks and a direct reduction iron ore (DRI) furnace using green hydrogen to replace the current blast furnace. B. Of the two actions, only the electric oven is approved.
Ghent and Dunkirk. The Belgian site in Ghent and the French site in Dunkirk have already entered the engineering phase for the design of electric furnaces and DRI to replace blast furnaces and produce steel without emissions.
Bremen and Eisenhuttenstadt. The company plans to build DRI plants and electric arc furnaces at its factories in Bremen and Eisenhuttenstadt (Germany) to obtain carbon-neutral steel. Arcelor has already experimented with DRI technology in a pilot plant in Hamburg, Germany.
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