Day: 4 April 2023

ArcelorMittal is communicating to customers this week that delays are expected to deliveries across Europe due to the fires that impacted one blast furnace in northern Spain and another in northern France during the last two weeks.

In a letter to customers, the company says: “We must acknowledge that delays in execution of the existing orderbook are likely to be unavoidable and that allocations for fresh orderbook may also be reduced.”

Currently, blast furnace A at Gijon as well as the main blast furnace at Dunkirk are idled following the accidents on 22 March and 30 March respectively. “We are assessing the damages and the time needed to make the necessary repairs as well as the impact on our production plans. At this stage, given the severity of the incidents, it appears that several weeks will be needed to get back to standard production levels,” the company says in the letter seen by Kallanish.

The letter was sent by the Flat Carbon Europe unit of ArcelorMittal, as the accidents have impacted furnaces mainly producing pig iron for slab and flat steel production.

Emanuele Norsa, Italy

H2 Green Steel and Fortum have signed a frame agreement for electricity trading for the supply of CO2-free electricity for H2 Green Steel’s projected steel mill in northern Sweden.

The frame agreement is initially planned to include two power purchase agreements (PPAs) for 2.3 TWh per year, Kallanish learns from H2GS. In detail, these are one index-based PPA of 1.3 TWh annually (from 2026) with a five-year hedging horizon, and a fixed price PPA of 1 TWh for up to nine years (from 2027).

Significant volumes of electricity are needed to power the 700-800MW electrolyser that will generate green hydrogen, H2GS notes. The electrolyser will reduce iron ore to sponge iron that will feed the steel production at H2GS’s plant.

“Fortum takes a frontrunner position among Nordic companies supporting the region’s green industrialisation,” says Luisa Orre, chief procurement officer of H2GS.

In fact, Fortum is also a stakeholder in another ambitious Scandinavian greenfield venture – Blastr – which plans to build a mill for green steels in Finland.

Christian Koehl, Germany