On May 15, ArcelorMittal announced that it remains committed to decarbonizing its facilities in France and is working closely with the government, looking forward to resuming its plans later this year.
Europe's largest steel producer said that the European Commission's Steel and Metal Production Action Plan, announced in March 2025, "inspires optimism that the European Commission will implement effective trade protection and carbon Boundary Regulation (CBAM) mechanisms shortly thereafter."
Due to the fact that the European steel sector is experiencing the deepest crisis since the financial crisis of 2009, the company recently decided to postpone the implementation of its decarbonization projects in Europe.
"The revised protective measures for steel, which came into force on April 1, are the first step in the right direction. The European steel industry currently needs an effective import restriction of 15% of market demand, as well as an effective CBAM, which, in particular, prevents the redistribution of resources. This would restore a level playing field in the European steel market," ArcelorMittal said.
The company said it is confident that it will be able to resume its decarbonization plan after the summer and, in particular, invest in the first electric arc furnace (EDP) in Dunkirk, an investment estimated at about 1.2 billion euros ($1.07 billion).
These investments are part of a larger investment in France of 2 billion euros: 254 million euros have already been invested in Dunkirk and 53 million euros in the plant in Fosse, as well as investments of 500 million euros in a new electric steel production facility under construction in Mardik, which is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year.
In February 2022, ArcelorMittal announced that it would be relocating its Dunkirk plant from the BF-BOF production route. The company announced plans to build an electric steelmaking plant and a DRI plant with a capacity of 2.5 million tons per year in Dunkirk with the aim of launching new equipment by 2027 and phasing out the old one by 2030, but then abandoned these projects in 2024.
At the moment, work is underway at the ArcelorMittal plant in Dunkirk on the iron ore sintering line, in blast furnace No. 4 and in one of the converters of the steel mill.
Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, evaluated Northwest Hot-rolled Coils with European carbon raw materials at a price of 695 euros per ton at the Ruhr plant on May 14, consistently day-to-day.
Annalisa Villa
spglobal.com
