ArcelorMittal Poland (AMP) is ready to undergo its transition to electric arc furnaces but requires the guarantee of competitive electricity prices to make the required investments, says AMP chief executive Wojciech Koszuta.
AMP plans to transition away from the blast furnace production route at its Dabrowa Gornicza steelworks to EAF steelmaking in stages, with long products the first to be produced via EAF, with no implications for product quality.
Thereafter, certain technological adaptation will be required to transition flats production to EAFs to produce the required grades. However, the experience and knowhow will be used from ArcelorMittal’s Sestao plant in Spain, which already produces a full range of flats via EAF, according to Koszuta.
The right conditions are however required for this to be successful. In his opening remarks during a session at Thursday’s European Economic Congress in Katowice attended by Kallanish, the AMP ceo stressed the importance of policy to ensure industrial competitiveness. He emphasised it is important “we do not create a few of these strategies every year and do not change them every year. We have to implement them.”
Progressive MEP Jens Geier said the role of industry needs to be defended in order to preserve jobs, the value chain, and input material for the energy transition but also defence. “We have China as a player and competitor and an unreliable US government; we need to rely on ourselves to defend our economic model,” he noted.
The European Commission’s Steel and Metals Action Plan is “better than I expected,” added Geier, who is also a member of the European Parliament’s budget committee, and industry, research and energy committee. It is a holistic approach that shows the Commission is “not thinking in silos” and is explicit on international trade, as seen by the safeguard mechanism adjustments.
As someone who promoted climate regulation, Geier admitted: “We were much too optimistic when it came to the implementation [of climate change regulation] because it takes much longer than expected … Now is the time to do anything to defend the industry because it’s instrumental for the European [welfare].”
Germany is focusing on the transition from ironmaking in BFs to direct reduction plants based on gas, but this will require huge sums of money, Geier continued. “We need a drastic change in EU state aid rules,” he asserted, pointing to the Draghi and Letta reports that show EU rules are “totally outdated”, applying to the globalised market of 30 years ago. Today, all governments are supporting their industries.
Carbon capture storage and utilisation (CCUS) has meanwhile been accepted at European Commission level and is “absolutely necessary”, he added.
Koszuta responded saying steel imports need to be restricted to ensure European industry remains competitive. While the first step of AMP’s decarbonisation will ensure it has flexibility to respond to electricity prices, the second will be to move away from BFs and use first natural gas and then hydrogen to produce DRI.
CBAM and trade defence instruments will undoubtedly help maintain EU industrial competitiveness, but national energy policies lie outside of the direct control of Brussels, Geier concluded.
Adam Smith Poland
