The challenge we face
The world faces enormous challenges in the 21st century: from climate change to increasing pressures on natural resources, from the lifestyle expectations of those in the developed world to tackling poverty at the base of the pyramid in emerging markets. These issues have a direct impact on businesses as well as governments, civil society, and individuals.
Businesses are expected to report more openly, act more responsibly, protect the environment, and support their local communities. All of these factors pose risks to companies as large as ours if we fail to manage them. But they also present us with enormous opportunities from the commercial potential of new greener products to the innovation potential of a new generation of people entering our industry.
Related news & technical articles
European Year of Rail: discover ArcelorMittal’s commitment to the rail sector
22 April 20212021 is the European Year of Rail.Officially launched on 29 March by the European Commission, the European Year of Rail will aim to highlight the benefits of rail as a sustainable, smart, and safe means of transport. “Environmentally-friendly and energy-efficient, rail will play a crucial role in helping the EU become climate neutral by 2050. The COVID-19 crisis has also shown how rail transport can facilitate the supply of essential goods such as medical devices, food, and fuel in exceptional circumstances” declared Oleg Butković, Croatian Minister for the Sea, Transport, and Infrastructure, President of the Council of the EU.
Corporate NewsResponsibleSteel™ deployment of the Sustainable Development Europe programme
20 April 2021Driving the responsible production and sourcing of steel, ResponsibleSteel™ is the steel industry’s first global multi-stakeholder standard and certification initiative. ArcelorMittal has played a pivotal role in establishing this standard since 2015, and this pertinent work continues.
Industry NewsArcelorMittal Asturias starts coke oven gas injection for Blast Furnace B
15 April 2021In February 2021, ArcelorMittal Asturias completed its coke oven gas (COG) injection project for Blast Furnace B in its Gijón plant, a strategic step to reduce CO2 emissions and operational costs thanks to lower coke consumption. Use of this innovative technology will result in a reduction in CO2 emissions of 125 000 tonnes a year, equivalent to the emissions generated by the annual consumption of 84 000 Spanish households with individual natural gas-based heating systems*.
Corporate NewsIntroducing ArcelorMittal’s XCarb™ recycled and renewably produced
8 April 2021XCarb™ is the new brand name for ArcelorMittal’s ongoing global programme of steelmaking innovation targeted at carbon neutral steel by 2050. The initiatives that are part of XCarb™ aim to reduce the carbon footprint of ArcelorMittal and of our customers.
Corporate News
European Year of Rail: discover ArcelorMittal’s commitment to the rail sector
2021 is the European Year of Rail.
Officially launched on 29 March by the European Commission, the European Year of Rail will aim to highlight the benefits of rail as a sustainable, smart, and safe means of transport. “Environmentally-friendly and energy-efficient, rail will play a crucial role in helping the EU become climate neutral by 2050. The COVID-19 crisis has also shown how rail transport can facilitate the supply of essential goods such as medical devices, food, and fuel in exceptional circumstances” declared Oleg Butković, Croatian Minister for the Sea, Transport, and Infrastructure, President of the Council of the EU.
A truly sustainable means of transport
Rail emits far less CO2 than equivalent travel by road or air. It accounts for only 0.4 % of EU greenhouse gas emissions, while all EU transport accounts for 25% of the EU’s total emissions. Plus, it is the only transport means that has consistently reduced its emissions and energy consumption between 1990-2017 while increasingly using renewable energy sources.
Moreover, rails are infinitely recyclable. At the end of its service life and when it is removed from the track, a rail can be recycled as raw material to manufacture new rails or other steel products, which means a significant amount of natural resources and energy savings. This ability to infinitely recycle is one of the environmental strengths of steel.
ArcelorMittal committed to being climate neutral by 2050
As the world’s leading steel and mining company, ArcelorMittal supports the European Commission’s Green Deal and believes the right market mechanisms are a critical part of enabling the deployment of low-emissions steelmaking. ArcelorMittal was one of the first companies to support a proposed carbon border adjustment and backs the European Commission’s proposals for a €35 billion ‘just transition’ fund to invest in research, innovation, and green technology.
ArcelorMittal Europe has committed to reduce CO2 emissions by 30% by 2030 with a further ambition to be carbon neutral by 2050, in line with the EU’s Green Deal and the Paris Agreement. As Europe’s largest steelmaker, we have a significant role to play.
ArcelorMittal has recently launched XCarb™ as part of the company’s journey to deliver on its 2050 net zero commitment. XCarb™ will ultimately bring together all of ArcelorMittal’s reduced, low, and zero-carbon products and steelmaking activities, as well as wider initiatives and green innovation projects, into a single effort focused on achieving demonstrable progress towards carbon neutral steel.
ArcelorMittal Rails & Special Sections bringing innovation to the railway sector
ArcelorMittal Europe Long – Products Rails & Special Sections operates rail production facilities in Spain, Poland, and Luxembourg offering a wide portfolio of products covering rails for trains, undergrounds, trams, light rails, crane rails, crossings, and rail accessories, building an incomparable knowledge and expertise of these product ranges.
ArcelorMittal’s current main trending topics for railway are:
- Digitalisation: ArcelorMittal Rails & Special Sections is extending its 4.0 transformation with the launch of several digital tools such as the new Rail Tool app, Life Cycle Cost models, and predictive maintenance.
- Increasing rail length in order to provide further track safety, welding, track laying, and maintenance cost savings.
- Increasing rail service life with the most appropriate solutions related to different applications: LCV for tramways, new hardness grades for heavy haul, and other uses.
- RailCor®: A completely new range of corrosion-resistant rails which offer protection in severe environments whether the rails are installed inside tunnels, city centres, or coastal areas. It also offers increased rail service life and increased cost savings reducing Life Cycle Cost.
- Customer experience: The development of new passenger and citizen-oriented solutions to increase comfort and reduce traffic noise.
- R&D: To satisfy customers’ increasing requirements, ArcelorMittal has its own dedicated R&D Rail Excellence Centre that allows us to provide our customers with prompt, innovative, and cost-effective solutions. The research lines are structured around three main axes: optimisation of the manufacturing process, new product development, and implementation of new rail track solutions. The welding pilot plant, the advanced testing systems of in-use properties, or the ongoing developments of track monitoring are some examples of the solutions that ArcelorMittal, through the R&D Rail Excellence Centre, will bring to the railway sector. This will be possible thanks to an open innovation in collaboration with a network of universities, technology centres, and companies from the railway sector.
Text:
ArcelorMittal Europe Communications
Video:
ArcelorMittal
Images:
ArcelorMittal
Shutterstock
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ResponsibleSteel™ deployment of the Sustainable Development Europe programme
Driving the responsible production and sourcing of steel, ResponsibleSteel™ is the steel industry’s first global multi-stakeholder standard and certification initiative. ArcelorMittal has played a pivotal role in establishing this standard since 2015, and this pertinent work continues.
What is ResponsibleSteel™?
ResponsibleSteel™ is a not-for-profit organisation developing sustainability performance standards and an independent third-party certification programme for the steel value chain. At its heart, it is a multi-stakeholder collaboration between business and civil society. This ground-breaking initiative now involves over 70 members and associates, made up of companies and civil society organisations from around the world.
Alan Knight, Head of Sustainable Development at ArcelorMittal, notes: “Responsible production techniques and high ethical and business standards are becoming increasingly important to our customers, and ultimately to their customers and consumers. We want to get to a point where steel users and purchasers have total confidence in their choices.”
Our approach
We know the importance of creating a standard to ensure that steel industry customers – and thereby consumers – can be confident that the steel they use has been sourced and produced responsibly at every stage.
By creating a multi-stakeholder forum to build trust and achieve consensus, ResponsibleSteel™ aims to enhance the responsible sourcing, production, use, and recycling of steel through the development of standards, certification, and related tools.
In November 2019, ResponsibleSteel™ published a performance standard for steel making sites, and in 2020 we considered how it handles raw materials and other supply chain issues. Members using the standard will be able to gain competitive advantage by using the standards to inform customers of the credibility and rigour that has gone into auditing their social and environmental performance.
The ResponsibleSteel™ performance standard – with 12 environmental, social, and governance principles - was published in November 2019.
ArcelorMittal has been a driving force in the creation of ResponsibleSteel™ and is represented on the Board of Directors. In developing the ResponsibleSteel™ standard, ArcelorMittal has been working with other steel companies such as Blue Scope, Voestalpine, and Aperam, together with a range of stakeholders across the steel value chain: Anglo American; automotive makers Daimler and BMW; civil society organisations Mighty Earth, IUCN, and the Climate Group; the bank HSBC, and the global union IndustriAll.
Having run pilot audits across key sites in 2018 and 2019 whilst the standard was in development, ArcelorMittal began the process of certifying various sites across the group in 2020, including the ArcelorMittal Europe – Flat Products division.
The ResponsibleSteel™ principles
Principle 1. Corporate Leadership
Principle 2. Social, Environmental, and Governance Management Systems
Principle 3. Occupational and Community Health and Safety
Principle 4. Labour Rights
Principle 5. Human Rights
Principle 6. Local Communities
Principle 7. Stakeholder Engagement and Communication
Principle 8. Climate Change and Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Principle 9. Noise, Emissions, Effluents, and Waste
Principle 10. Water Stewardship
Principle 11. Biodiversity
Principle 12. Decommissioning and Closure
Text:
ArcelorMittal Luxembourg
Constructalia
Images:
ResponsibleSteel™
ArcelorMittal Asturias starts coke oven gas injection for Blast Furnace B
In February 2021, ArcelorMittal Asturias completed its coke oven gas (COG) injection project for Blast Furnace B in its Gijón plant, a strategic step to reduce CO2 emissions and operational costs thanks to lower coke consumption. Use of this innovative technology will result in a reduction in CO2 emissions of 125 000 tonnes a year, equivalent to the emissions generated by the annual consumption of 84 000 Spanish households with individual natural gas-based heating systems*.
CO2 emissions reduction
ArcelorMittal Europe has a target to reduce its CO2 emissions by 30% by 2030 and an ambition to become carbon neutral by 2050. To achieve this target, ArcelorMittal Europe has two main technological pathways, innovative DRI (direct reduced iron) and Smart Carbon, which were presented in the company’s first Climate Action Report published in June 2020. Innovative DRI involves the use of hydrogen for the direct reduction of iron ore for use in both electric arc furnaces and blast furnaces. Smart Carbon is a carbon-neutral steel production path that makes use of all clean energies (circular carbon, clean electricity, and carbon capture and storage, or CCS) in a controlled high-temperature reduction environment for the production of hot metal. In the first stage, the Smart Carbon path will basically use circular carbon, expanding to become hydrogen Smart Carbon when green hydrogen is widely available and affordable.
Smart Carbon
The Smart Carbon approach, as applied in the projects that the company is working on at its European Flat Products sites, allows gases from various sources to be injected into the blast furnace. The injection of coke oven gas, with high hydrogen content, is an effective and cost-efficient method that enables steel producers to reduce CO2 emissions immediately. ArcelorMittal Asturias has completed the most advanced project in the company linked to the use of coke oven gas and has initiated the injection of grey hydrogen (hydrogen recovered from various gases, including natural gas and coke oven gas) into Blast Furnace B.
The Asturias project is based on the idea of reducing the amount of CO2 generated in the hot metal production process through the reuse of part of the gas generated in the coke oven batteries to partially replace the coke used as fuel in the blast furnace. With the same circular economy approach, the plant is finalising the work that will allow coke oven gas to be supplied to the reheating furnaces in the Heavy Plate and Rail mills, thus reducing the consumption of natural gas and the generation of CO2. These rolling mills process steel slabs and billets from the Avilés and Gijón steel plants, transforming them into heavy plates and rails respectively.
Oswaldo Suárez, CEO of ArcelorMittal’s Asturias Cluster, notes that “the injection of coke-oven gas into Blast Furnace B is an important milestone in the transformation of our processes to progress towards a more sustainable, low-carbon production model.”
*Based on a recent study by the Spanish Institute for Energy Diversification and Savings (IDAE).
Text:
ArcelorMittal
Constructalia
Images:
ArcelorMittal
Introducing ArcelorMittal’s XCarb™ recycled and renewably produced
XCarb™ is the new brand name for ArcelorMittal’s ongoing global programme of steelmaking innovation targeted at carbon neutral steel by 2050. The initiatives that are part of XCarb™ aim to reduce the carbon footprint of ArcelorMittal and of our customers.
The XCarb™ recycled and renewably produced initiative
One of the first initiatives from ArcelorMittal Europe – Long Products is XCarb™ recycled and renewably produced.
The label is applied to our steels produced with 100 per cent recycled content and using energy which only comes from renewable sources. Steel produced by ArcelorMittal Europe – Long Products under our XCarb™ recycled and renewably produced label is audited and certified by an independent third-party.
Purchasing our XCarb™ recycled and renewably produced steel allows you to reduce the global CO2 footprint of your projects, products, and finished goods. To calculate the total CO2 impact of your products, our customers can use the figures reported in the EPD - they are independently certified by a third-party.
For more information
ArcelorMittal Europe - Long Products customers can contact their local support team for more information about XCarb™ recycled and renewably produced steel.
You can also click here for the full list of contacts.
Text:
ArcelorMittal Europe Communications
Constructalia
Images and video:
ArcelorMittal
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Green ArcelorMittal
We are committed to leading the way in which the world views steel and championing steel’s role in creating high quality, sustainable lifestyles for people all over the world.
Leading the way with 10 sustainable development outcomes
Our new sustainable development framework focusses on 10 outcomes we need to achieve for steel to be one of the world's most sustainable materials. Pursuing these outcomes, a result of both analysis and consultation, allows us to be better prepared to respond to long-term trends and manage our stakeholders’ expectations more effectively.
Useful information
MoreEnvironmental impacts of our products
Our local communities and stakeholders trust us to share the vital resources of air, land, and water because we operate responsibly and transparently, and we have clearly improved our impact.
We understand these impacts and work collaboratively to protect and enhance the natural capital we and our communities and partners rely on.
Developing greener steel products
Commercial designers and manufacturers, as well as end-users, choose steel for products that need strength and durability. They make that choice because they understand steel contributes to more a sustainable lifestyle.
Therefore, we are continuously designing more energy-efficient products using materials that can be re-used and recycled and produced using fewer resources and without negative consequences for the environment or society.