The investment plan for the Asturian steel plants is the only one of the four major decarbonisation projects for which ArcelorMittal has requested public support under the European CEEAG program (state aid for climate, environmental protection and energy) that has passed the scrutiny of the Directorate General for Competition of the European Union (EU) and that it is already on the table of the European Commission for the final decision, which is expected to occur shortly.
The other three projects of the multinational are located in the ArcelorMittal factories in Bremen (Germany), Dunkerque (France) and Ghent (Belgium).. In them, and as in the one designed for Gijón, iron ore direct reduction (DRI) furnaces are planned to replace blast furnaces, as well as hybrid electric furnaces to replace conventional steel mills. In addition, ArcelorMittal has processed other applications for the Fos-sur-Mer (France) and Eisenhüttenstadt (Germany) plants.
In the most advanced process of analysis and report of the European Competition authorities were four projects: the one in Asturias, and another two German and one French promoted by other steel companies. Of these, only the one in Asturias and one of the two German projects have already been transferred by Competition to the European Commission for resolution.
Unless this executive body delays in doing so and more files already reviewed by the Competition accumulate soon, everything indicates that the Asturias plan will take advantage of its implementation. This is relevant for three reasons: because the deadlines in which the Gijón factory moves to undertake its transformation are very fair, since the useful life of the blast furnace “A” (the installation to be replaced by the new DRI system) expires at the end of 2024; because there is fear that the accumulation of steel decarbonization projects through the direct reduction of iron mining will saturate the engineering firms specialized in this new technology, and because the demand from the United States, with the support of the Law for the Reduction of Inflation is monopolizing all kinds of equipment linked to green hydrogen, which is the renewable energy that is called to star in the new technological era of the steel industry.
For this last reason, the public aid requested by ArcelorMittal and which has just been reported favorably by the Competition is directed entirely to the future DRI furnace, while the action on the Gijón steelworks for its transformation into a hybrid electric furnace (capable of being powered with pre-reduced iron and scrap) opts for other types of public aid, some of which the company has already begun to receive, in the case of the 7.5 million euros between direct subsidies and loans that were granted in November to addressing environmental improvements in the future electric steel mill and others from the IDAE (Institute for the Diversification and Saving of Energy of Spain).
Through the PERTE (Strategic Project for Economic Recovery and Transformation) for Decarbonization promoted by the Spanish Government, ArcelorMittal has requested public aid for the DRI for an amount of up to 500 million for an official investment of 1,000 million. It is taken for granted, however, that total public aid will exceed that figure (the Minister of Industry, Reyes Maroto, already opened this possibility during her visit to Fitur days ago) and that the investment could be between 1,400 and 1,500 million, although in documents officials have come to reserve up to 1,800 million.
The company has not specified the final scope of the investment and is limited to maintaining for now the official figures of 1,000 million, which were committed in July 2021 by the president and CEO of the multinational, Lakshmi and Aditya Mittaland the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez.
However, later in 2022 in Davos the signing of a protocol between Aditya Mittal and the Minister of Industry, Reyes Maroto, introduced the possibility of incorporating a new hybrid electric oven in the Avilés factory.
Investment of 33 million.
ArcelorMittal announced yesterday that it has invested $36 million (33.12 million euros) in Boston Metal, a company specializing in the decarbonization of primary steel production using a patented molten oxide electrolysis process. This is the largest initial investment made to date by ArcelorMittal through its XCarb® Innovation Fund. The fund, created in March 2021, aims to invest in the best technologies that offer the potential to make a significant contribution to the decarbonisation of the steel industry.