Marcegaglia is starting the engineering phase of its new flat steel production facility in Fos-sur-Mer, Southern France, a source close to the company confirms to Kallanish. The new flat mini-mill known as the “mistral project” is scheduled to begin production in 2028.
Italian equipment maker Danieli has been entrusted with the mini-mill supply, which will include full production facilities for scrap preparation, electric steelmaking, slab casting, and hot-strip rolling. The new mini-mill will produce up to 2.1 million tonnes annually of stainless and carbon hot rolled coil. It will supply Marcegaglia’s cold-rolling complex in Ravenna, meeting about 30% of the company’s total HRC requirements.
“The new electric steel meltshop will feature a Danieli Fastarc Zerobucket furnace equipped with ECS continuous scrap charging and Tornado preheating system, and Q-Melt adaptive process control with auto-pilot,” Danieli explains in a note. “Liquid steel will be processed into quality grades by twin-ladle refining stations and twin-tank vacuum degassers, ensuring high energy efficiency and reduced carbon and NOx emissions.”
The mill design will provide Marcegaglia with flexible production capacity by integrating a Steckel mill and a hot-strip mill into a single configuration. The layout consists of a roughing stand and a five-stand finishing mill. The first stand will operate in Steckel mode when required. This configuration will enable stainless steel slab from Marcegaglia’s Sheffield plant to be rolled in Steckel mode. Carbon steel slab from the caster will be processed in continuous mode through the five-stand finishing mill.
The design includes water and fume treatment systems to guarantee full compliance with environmental standards.
Marcegaglia has provisionally secured a long-term supply of low-carbon nuclear energy to power the facility in Fos. In June, the Italian steel group signed a letter of intent with French utility EDF for a ten-year supply contract that will cover 50% of the energy requirements for the future site.
Marcegaglia plans to invest almost €800 million ($937m) in the former Ascometal site, acquired in 2024. Since last year’s acquisition, Ascometal Fos-sur-Mer has been renamed Marcegaglia Fos-sur-Mer. It will produce HRC and retain its EAF. Jacques-Yves Floch, a former manager at ArcelorMittal Dunkirk, has been appointed director of the plant. The site will be transformed with a focus on sustainability and energy efficiency, producing steel from scrap and low-emission direct reduced iron.
Groundbreaking following engineering studies is scheduled at the beginning of next year (see Kallanish passim).
Natalia Capra France
