Italian long steel producer ORI Martin invested €16.4 million ($18.6m) in research, innovation and digitalisation last year, according to its 2025 sustainability report published earlier this week.
Of this, €7.8m went to digitalisation projects, €4.8m to technological innovation and €3.8m to research and development. The money went mainly into sensors, the Internet of Things, big data and artificial intelligence. Eight robotic systems now run across its plants, keeping workers further from hazardous areas, Kallanish notes.
The biggest industrial milestone of the year was the startup of a new electric arc furnace at Brescia. The furnace has an electromagnetic stirrer, which has cut both energy use and emissions. The Brescia plant melted around 570,000 tonnes of ferrous scrap in 2025. Some 77% of the waste it generated was recovered.
ORI Martin has also finished designing a 5MW agrivoltaic plant covering roughly eight hectares at its Ospitaletto site. All its output will be used on site, adding to rooftop solar and existing power purchase agreements.
In research, its REWhite project is looking for new uses for white slag with the Lombardy region backing the project.
The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) validated the company’s emissions goals during the year. Product carbon footprint tracking is now broken down by steel grade under ISO 14067. ORI Martin is also one of twelve companies in Confindustria Brescia’s Green Metals project, which plans to replace fossil gas with agricultural biomethane.
The investments came in a difficult market. “2025 was a complex year for ORI Martin, marked by economic and market challenges that affected the entire steel industry,” says sustainability manager Carolina de Miranda.
Energy and raw material costs stayed high and competition remained intense, the company notes. Even so, ORI Martin generated €470m in economic value and increased headcount at Brescia and Ospitaletto to 640. The two sites make over 200 steel grades, mainly for automotive and mechanical engineering clients.
Looking ahead, the steelmaker plans to keep combining industrial competitiveness with the green transition.
De Miranda sees the SBTi approval as a key step. “The validation of our emission reduction targets by the Science Based Targets initiative is an important milestone that further strengthens the credibility and robustness of the path we have undertaken,” she adds.
