The European Commission has announced that it has approved €850 million financing for the decarbonization of steel production at the Dunkirk plant of steelmaker ArcelorMittal France.
The financing will support the construction of a direct reduction plant and two electric arc furnaces at the Dunkirk plant, which will substitute two of the three existing blast furnaces and two of the three basic oxygen furnaces. Natural gas, initially used in the direct reduction plant, will gradually be phased out of the steel production processes. Ultimately, the new installation will operate using exclusively renewable or low-carbon hydrogen, biogas and electricity as energy.
The construction will take place between 2023 and 2026. The project is scheduled to be commissioned in 2026 and is expected to produce an annual four million mt of low-carbon liquid steel. Once completed, the project is expected to reduce carbon emissions by around 70 million mt over the 15-year lifetime of the project.