Luxembourg-based steelmaker ArcelorMittal has announced that it has received support from the French government for its decarbonization program in France, which involves a €1.7 billion investment in its Fos-sur-Mer and Dunkirk plants.
The investment will enable a transformation of steelmaking at the French plants and a total reduction of close to 40 percent or 7.8 million tons in ArcelorMittal’s carbon emissions in France by 2030.
ArcelorMittal will build an electric arc furnace at the Fos-sur-Mer plant, while it will build a 2.5 million mt direct reduced iron (DRI) unit at the Dunkirk plant to transform iron ore using hydrogen instead of coal. The DRI will be completed by an additional electric arc furnace.
The new facilities will be operational in 2027 and three out of five blast furnaces of ArcelorMittal France will gradually be replaced by electric arc furnaces by 2030.