ArcelorMittal Poland calls for decarbonisation support
ArcelorMittal Poland has called for support in its decarbonisation efforts as it says mills cannot bear the additional costs in challenging market conditions, the company told McCloskey on 13 June.
Decarbonisation requires installation of new equipment and implementation of new technologies to meet the EU’s CO2 emission targets. And the transition needs to be done under strain of a challenging market, which already has some additional costs that non-EU steelmakers do not face, including the EU Emission Trading System (ETS). In addition, energy costs in Europe are the highest in the world, ArcelorMittal said.
The EU aims to achieve a 55% reduction in emissions by 2030, and to become carbon-neutral by 2050.
The EU market has been under pressure from the rapid rise of competitive steel imports: “Imports from outside the EU, where production costs are significantly lower, already satisfy almost 30% of apparent steel consumption in Europe,” the company said.
The statement has been confirmed by market participants who cited low import offers for hot-rolled coil as one of the driving forces behind the domestic price drop.
“Against this backdrop, no steel producer can bear the costs of the transition to low carbon-emissions steelmaking alone,” ArcelorMittal Poland said.
The steelmaker also calls for a reduction of energy costs and effective mechanism to prevent carbon leakage.
“We are glad that the European Commission has taken into account the majority of the steel industry’s requests in the Steel and Metals Action Plan. Now, it will be crucial to implement these measures quickly,” the producer said.
The European Commission unveiled its official European Steel and Metals Action Plan on 19 March.
ArcelorMittal Poland has spent over 1 billion zlotys (around $270 million) on projects aimed at reducing its environmental impact and increasing energy efficiency, including blast furnace overhaul. For additional details on steel decarbonisation initiatives in Europe, please see McCloskey’s European Green Steel Profile.
ArcelorMittal’s Dąbrowa Górnicza plant is one of several producers of 120-metre long rail used in high-speed rail.
Maria Tanatar
ArcelorMittal committed to restarting French decarbonization plan following EU measures
ArcelorMittal said May 15 that it remains committed to decarbonizing its French operations and is working closely with the government as it looks to resume its plans later in the year.
Europe’s largest steelmaker said the European Commission’s Steel and Metal Action Plan, announced in March 2025, “provides optimism that the European Commission will implement efficient trade defense and carbon border adjustment mechanisms (CBAM) soon after that.”
With the European steel sector experiencing its deepest crisis since the financial crisis of 2009, the company had recently decided to postpone the implementation of its decarbonization projects in Europe.
“The revised steel safeguard measures that entered into effect on April 1, are a first step in the right direction. The European steel industry now requires effective limitation of imports at 15% of market demand as well as an effective CBAM that notably prevents resource shuffling. That would restore a level playing field on the European steel market,” ArcelorMittal said.
The company said it is confident of being able to restart its decarbonization plan after the summer and, in particular, to invest in the first electric arc furnace (EAF) at Dunkirk, an investment estimated at around Eur1.2 billion ($1.07 billion).
This investment is part of a Eur2 billion larger investment in France: Eur254 million already for Dunkirk and Eur53 million for its site at Fos, plus the Eur500 million investment in a new electric steel production unit under construction in Mardyck, which is set to be completed by the end of this year.
In February 2022, ArcelorMittal said that it would be transitioning its Dunkirk plant away from the BF-BOF production route. The company announced plans to build an EAF and a 2.5 million mt/year DRI plant in Dunkirk with the aim of starting up the new equipment by 2027 and phasing out the old by 2030, but then in 2024 backtracked on these projects.
At the moment ArcelorMittal’s Dunkirk site is carrying out works at the iron ore sintering line, blast furnace 4 and one of the steel mill’s converters.
Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed Northwest European carbon-accounted hot-rolled coil at Eur695/mt ex-works Ruhr on May 14, stable day over day.
ArcelorMittal to cut 600 jobs in France amid escalating steel crisis in Europe
Europe’s largest steelmaker announced plans to eliminate approximately 600 jobs at ArcelorMittal France North sites, notably Dunkirk, Florange, Basse-Indre, Mardyck, Mouzon, Desvres and Montataire.
The number of affected jobs, however, is not final and might change.
“At this stage though, it is too early to quantify the number of people who might be affected,” ArcelorMittal said.
The measures are necessary “to adapt [the company’s] activity to the new market context and ensure its future competitiveness,” ArcelorMittal said.
The company deemed market conditions in the European steel market as a major driver behind the decision, Fastmarkets understands.
“As the European steel industry is facing a crisis marked by a 20% drop in demand over five years and a sharp rise in imports, which now account for 30% of the market, ArcelorMittal France North must continuously review its efficiency and competitiveness,” the statement reads.
Affected facilities
ArcelorMittal did not announce any immediate plans to cut production at affected sites when contacted by Fastmarkets on April 24.
There are three BFs at the Dunkirk site with combined capacity for about 6.9 million tonnes per year of pig iron. Only BFs 3 and 4 have been operational recently, however. BF2, with capacity for 1.4 million tpy of pig iron, has been idled since June 2022, Fastmarkets understands. The site can produce 4.6 million tpy of hot-rolled coil.
The Florange site can produce up to 2.8 million tonnes of flat steel products a year, including hot-rolled, cold-rolled, galvanized coil and tinplate.
The Madryk site is equipped with pickling and cold-rolling mill and two galvanizing lines. Estimated yearly output at the site is over 3 million tonnes of flat steel products.
The Desvers site can produce around 400,000 tonnes of galvanized coil per year.
The Basse-Indre site produces tinned and electrolytic chromium steel coils and sheets.
The Montataire site has three galvanizing lines and one organic coating line, with a total capacity of over 1 million tonnes of coated coil per year.
And Mouzon site has two lines to produce corrosion resistant flat steel products.
European steel sector struggles
The European steel sector has been facing rising production costs, increased pressure from low-cost imports from Asia and the ongoing deterioration of the steel demand-supply balance in Europe, sources told Fastmarkets.
ArcelorMittal is not the only one European steel producer who has been planning job cuts recently.
In April 2025, Tata Steel Netherlands announced plans to eliminate 1,600 jobs, Fastmarkets reported.
In November 2024, Germany’s largest steelmaker, Thyssenkrupp, announced plans to reduce its steel output and cut around 11,000 jobs to adapt to the fundamental changes taking place across the European steel market.
The EU steel industry reduced its capacity by 9 million tonnes per year in 2024, while also announcing 18,000 job cuts, according to European steel association Eurofer.
Crude steel production across Europe amounted to 136.30 million tonnes in 2022, down from 152.60 million tonnes in 2021, according to data from worldsteel. The decline was due to massive output cuts that were implemented by European mills in the third and fourth quarters of 2022 amid deteriorating demand and falling steel prices.
Steel output rebounded slightly to 129.5 million tonnes in 2024, compared with 126.3 million tonnes in 2023, according to worldsteel. But the total volume was still below the 159.4 million tonnes recorded pre-Covid in 2019.
Apparent steel consumption in the EU amounted to 127 million tonnes in 2024, down by 2.3% from 130 million tonnes in 2023 and lower than during the 2020 pandemic year, when it stood at 129 million tonnes, data from the European steel association Eurofer shows.
Real steel consumption shrunk by 3.8% in 2024 to around 132.7 million tonnes, from around 138 million tonnes in 2023.
While steel consumption in the EU decreased, the share of steel imports in the European market has been rising, crowding out local supply, sources noted.
Carbon steel imports to the EU in 2024 totaled 26.36 million tonnes, up by 6.4% compared with 24.78 million tonnes in 2023, Eurofer data showed.
In March this year, the European Commission presented a Steel and Metals Action Plan to support the struggling industry, but it remains to be seen how the plan will be implemented and what results it will bring.
One of the plan’s pillars is tailoring trade policies to protect struggling European market from unfair imports.
On April 1, the EU Commission introduced new, tighter, steel safeguard measures to support the domestic steel sector.
And on April 7 the EU imposed anti-dumping duties on imports of hot-rolled coil from Egypt, Vietnam and Japan.
Europe’s steel sector remains at the heart of many regional economies, with approximately 500 production sites across 22 EU member states.
According to EU data, the European steel sector contributes around €80 billion to the EU’s gross domestic product (GDP) and supports more than 2.5 million jobs.
Ironmaking decarbonisation economical only after 2030
It is “becoming increasingly clear” that transformational, low-emission ironmaking investments are only likely to be economical post-2030 and that policies to address the high capital and operational costs involved are required to make that happen, says ArcelorMittal chief executive Aditya Mittal.
What the steelmaking group can achieve by 2030 will “depend critically” on how the regulatory environment evolves this year, particularly in Europe. The EU’s Steel and Metals Action Plan “demonstrates that Europe understands the challenges the industry faces and the seriousness of the situation and is ready to tackle the structural issues required to support the future of steelmaking on the continent,” Mittal says in ArcelorMittal’s 2024 sustainability report.
The ceo hopes the plan “will be translated into swift action,” he adds in the report seen by Kallanish.
“Pending policy clarity, there is simply too much uncertainty at the moment to be able to make useful projections about how rapidly we will be able to bring down our emissions in the next five years,” Mittal continues.
The steelmaker intends to publish revised decarbonisation forecasts when the policy environment becomes more settled. In the meantime, it continues to develop all technologies that support lower emissions iron and steelmaking.
Over the next five years, its decarbonisation efforts will continue to focus on diversifying metallics supply, increasing energy efficiency, securing clean energy, and transforming steelmaking assets through continuing the shift to electric arc furnaces.
In the longer term, it expects to transition to lower emissions ironmaking and add carbon capture and storage.
All decarbonisation-related capital expenditure will be contained within the annual capex budget of $4.5-5 billion.
“The above approach should ensure that we can move swiftly when we reach the tipping point, where the confluence of policy, technology and cost will irreversibly transform the economics of steelmaking in favour of low-carbon methods,” Mittal concludes.
Adam Smith Poland
European HRC producers seek higher prices; buyers cautious amid lack of real demand
On Tuesday April 1, leading European steelmaker ArcelorMittal increased HRC prices by another €20 per tonne to €700 per tonne ex-works or delivered, Fastmarkets reported.
Later in the week, other suppliers followed the move with smaller increases, with offer prices for June-July delivery HRC in Northern Europe reported at €660-670 per tonne ex-works — in Germany and the Benelux area.
Buyers, however, estimated achievable prices at 640-650 per tonne ex-works.
“HR sheet prices are still too low to pay even €650 [per tonne ex-works] for HRC. We had a few weeks with a pick-up in orders, [but] now it’s getting quieter,” a German distributor said.
Another distributor source agreed that the current uptrend was not demand-driven, but mainly driven by trade defense measures.
“European mills are well-booked for the second quarter and import availability is limited due to safeguards and anti-dumping measures. It’s a sellers’ market now, so prices are likely to keep ticking up,” a second distributor said.
Sources, however, were worried about the long-term outlook, given the still-weak demand from key steel-using sectors and possible deterioration in demand from the already-struggling automotive sector, which is being impacted by Trump’s tariffs.
“So far, the volumes [of flat steel] taken by the automotive [sector] are not bad, but global markets remain unpredictable,” a mill source said.
Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Northern Europe at €651.83 ($718.30) per tonne on Friday, up by €1.33 per tonne from €650.50 per tonne on Thursday April 3.
The Northern European index was up by €6.83 per tonne week on week and by €22.79 per tonne month on month.
Meanwhile, in Southern Europe, Fastmarkets’ daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Italy was calculated at €627.50 per tonne on Friday, up by €2.50 per tonne from €625.00 per tonne on Thursday.
The index was up by €2.50 per tonne week on week and by €9.17 per tonne month on month.
HRC prices in Italy were not showing the same growth momentum as in Northern Europe lately, due to muted downstream demand and relatively high stocks at buyers, sources said.
The latest offers heard from Italian suppliers were at €630-650 per tonne ex-works, but buyers were still estimating the tradable market level at €620-630 per tonne ex-works, sources told Fastmarkets.
However, a major supplier withdrew offers from the market on Thursday and was expected to come back with higher prices shortly, sources said.
In the secondary market, 4 mm HR sheet was on offer at €700-720 per tonne CPT, and sales were “not booming.”
Overseas coil offers to Italy were broadly unchanged.
Asian suppliers were heard offering HRC to Italy at €550-570 per tonne CFR for May shipment.
An Indian supplier was offering HRC to Europe at €590 per tonne CFR for May shipment.
Turkey continued to offer May-shipment HRC at €590-600 per tonne CFR, including anti-dumping duty.
ArcelorMittal denies accusations of industrial pollution at its Fos-sur-Mer site
The Marseille public prosecutor’s office indicted ArcelorMittal for endangering the lives of others, forgery, and environmental damage earlier this week, according to media reports.
The steelmaker has therefore been placed under judicial supervision, subject to a €250,000 ($268,525) deposit and €1.75 million bank guarantee, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement, quoted by French media outlets.
ArcelorMittal said in its statement that the company was cooperating fully with the authorities in charge of dealing with complaints filed by residents and environmental associations in relation to the Fos-sur-Mer site.
“ArcelorMittal has always been transparent in its contact with the authorities and has made every effort to ensure that the emissions from the Fos-sur-Mer site comply with the prescribed annual limit values. There was no falsification of data,” the steel manufacturer added.
According to its statement, ArcelorMittal has invested more than €735 million since 2014 to modernize its facilities and reduce emission levels. Thanks to these actions, the company has reduced its air emissions from the Fos-sur-Mer site by 70% compared to 2002.
ArcelorMittal said that it would not comment further on the indictment because the procedure was still ongoing, adding that the presumption of innocence and respect for the secrecy of the investigation should be considered.
The Fos-sur-Mer site has been facing problems with environmental organizations and residents since 2018, when a complaint against the plan was filed, according to media outlets.
ArcelorMittal Fos-sur-Mer has two blast furnaces (BFs) with a total capacity for about 5 million tonnes per year of pig iron, market sources said. The site produces hot-rolled and cold-rolled coil.
ArcelorMittal modernizes its French assets
Earlier in March, ArcelorMittal announced that it planned further modernization of its two production plants in France – Dunkirk and Fos-sur-Mer. Due to the overhaul, one of the BFs at the Dunkirk site will be idled for 90 days in the second quarter of 2025.
Specifically for the Fos-sur-Mer site, the company is planning investment amounting to €18.3 million, which is intended to extend the life of BF1. But the production unit will restart operations no earlier than the first half of 2026, Fastmarkets understands. While BF2 will remain operational.
BF1 at Fos-sur-Mer has been idled since the third quarter of 2023.
Market overview
The stoppage of one BF at the Dunkirk site was expected to put additional pressure on the HRC prices in Europe, industry sources told Fastmarkets.
Supply of domestic material in the region has already been limited by Salzgitter, who announced force majeure on HRC deliveries due to a fire at a hot strip mill late in February.
These circumstances, combined with the limited HRC imports due to the new safeguard measures of the European Commission, have supported a recovery in HRC prices in Northern Europe, industry sources told Fastmarkets.
“Production in Europe is at a quite low level now. There are a lot of problems with domestic mills. Customers often complain about delays with deliveries,” a distributor source based in Germany told Fastmarkets.
The distributor source added that mills were quite firm on their offers, advising customers to go to another mill if they did not like the offered price. “But there are not many other options where to go,” the source said.
Despite some small fluctuations, HRC prices in Northern Europe have been recovering gradually since the beginning of the year, reaching €645.00 per tonne on Wednesday, Fastmarkets’ daily steel hot-rolled coil index domestic, exw Northern Europe, shows.
But the index averaged €608.04 per tonne in February remaining far below €738.28 per tonne – the average level reached in February 2024.
Fastmarkets’ sources expected that the recovery of the HRC prices would continue, although some were skeptical if the €700-per-tonne level would be reached.
ArcelorMittal and Siemens Energy partner on decarbonization
ArcelorMittal Europe – Flat Products, a subsidiary of Luxembourg-headquartered steelmaker ArcelorMittal, has announced that it is partnering with Germany-based Siemens Energy for high-grade steel solutions for energy transition infrastructure.
According to the statement, power demand is being driven by economic growth in Asia and the global south, and the explosion in data and AI is ramping up energy needs around the world.
“The steel characteristics we require are excellent magnetic permeability, strong thermal conductivity, very low energy losses, together with the availability of a wide range of coatings. ArcelorMittal is able to supply all the grades and coatings we need, and we know their R&D teams are constantly working on new solutions to make their electrical steels even more efficient.
The coming onstream of ArcelorMittal’s additional electrical steels production of 300,000 mt per annum, at Mardyck in France, will deliver the capacity and surety of supply to support Siemens Energy in its ongoing growth and development opportunities out of Erfurt,” Andreas Konschak, general manager at Siemens Energy, said.
ArcelorMittal steel removed from stranded ship
A chartered ship carrying steel for ArcelorMittal has now made it to its destination after running aground in the Humber Estuary at the start of the month, with the steel removed as part of a rescue operation, Kallanish learns.
H&S Wisdom become stuck en route to Gunness Wharf Port, near Scunthorpe on 2 March, with rescue crews at the time suggesting the ship may need to await until the next high tide at the end of the month to be refloated.
In recent days, ArcelorMittal has worked to remove the steel from the ship with cranes and pontoons. Following this, the ship refloated with the tide.
Ship tracking shows that the vessel has now been successfully docked at its intended destination as of late Saturday evening. It had departed from the Netherlands on 1 March.
Carrie Bone UK
US remains ArcelorMittal’s top market; Italy, UK grow
The US remained ArcelorMittal’s top sales market in 2024, while Poland moved up one place to fourth and Italy and the UK were among the few markets to see sales growth.
US sales slipped 5% on-year to $8.44 billion, while number two market Brazil saw sales fall 8% to $7.56 billion and third-largest destination Germany recorded a 12% decline to $5.76 billion, Kallanish notes from ArcelorMittal’s 2024 annual report.
Sales in Poland inched down 0.5% to $4.44 billion but still overtook France whose sales dropped 9% to $4.19 billion.
Of the rare growth areas, Italy sales rose 8% to $2.8 billion and UK sales by 9% to $1.46 billion.
In North America, ArcelorMittal Dofasco’s crude steel output was unchanged on-year in 2024 at 3.1 million tonnes, but ArcelorMittal Mexico production plummeted 34% to 2.5mt. In Brazil, Tubarão output was up 5% to 6.9mt and ArcelorMittal Pecém output surged 20% to 3mt, although this is partly because this figure is counted only from the point Pecém was acquired in March 2023.
In Europe, ArcelorMittal Bremen crude steel production rose 7% in 2024 to 3.1mt after the unit carried out blast furnace maintenance in 2023, which was also the case at ArcelorMittal Belgium whose output surged 21% to 5.2mt.
ArcelorMittal France saw output soar 23% to 4.8mt as its Dunkirk site was hit with a BF fire in 2023. ArcelorMittal Méditerrané output dropped 21% to 1.9mt as BF1 at Fos-sur-Mer remained idled throughout 2024. ArcelorMittal España output rose 13% to 3.6mt after BFA at Gijón was hit by a fire in 2023.
ArcelorMittal Poland meanwhile recorded a respectable 22% rebound in 2024 crude steel production to 3.8mt, following a very weak 2023. The rebound came despite the Krakow unit coke oven battery being permanently closed in July 2024, and coke oven battery 6 at the Zdzieszowice plant being closed in December 2024.
Adam Smith Poland
ArcelorMittal to idle Dunkirk BF for three months for major overhaul
The company plans to invest more than €270 million ($293 million) in its two primary steel production plants in France, at Dunkirk and Fos-sur-Mer, the company said in a statement seen by Fastmarkets.
The lion’s share of this investment, €254 million, will be at ArcelorMittal’s Dunkirk site. Major works will be carried out in the second quarter of 2025 on an iron ore sintering line, on blast furnace (BF) No4 and at one of the steel mill’s converters. During this time, BF4 will be idled for 90 days, but BF3 will remain operational.
There are three BFs at the Dunkirk site with combined capacity for about 6.9 million tonnes per year of pig iron. Only BFs Nos 3 and 4 have been operational recently, however. BF2, with capacity for 1.4 million tpy of pig iron, has been idled since June 2022, Fastmarkets understands. The site can produce 4.6 million tpy of hot-rolled coil.
“Logistics and supplies have been anticipated in order to limit the effect on downstream production facilities and to ensure continuity of service for customers,” the company statement read.
At ArcelorMittal’s Fos-sur-Mer site, the first phase of work on BF1 was about to get under way, the company said. The cost was estimated at €18.3 million to extend the life of this production unit. BF1 was scheduled for a restart no earlier than the first half of 2026. In the meantime, BF2 will remain operational.
BF1 at Fos-sur-Mer has been idled since the third quarter of 2023.
ArcelorMittal Fos-sur-Mer has two BFs with total capacity for about 5 million tpy of pig iron, market sources said. The site produces hot-rolled and cold-rolled coil.
The company gave no comment at the time of publication on the potential production losses that would result from the idling of the Dunkirk BFs.
Industry sources said that this unexpected move by a market leader would give an additional boost to hot-rolled coil prices in Europe.
“The HRC price rebound we see now is mainly driven by the circumstances around [trade] safeguard [measures] and restocking, not by real demand. News of such a major interruption at ArcelorMittal will probably push [flat steel] prices higher,” a buyer source said.
“There is no [HRC] shortage yet,” the same source added, “but if HRC import quotas are cut significantly under new [European Union] safeguards, and if Arcelor[Mittal] idles one big furnace in France, I’m sure the market will feel the effects.”
Fastmarkets calculated its daily steel hot-rolled coil index, domestic, exw Northern Europe, at €631.88 per tonne on Monday, up by €0.50 per tonne from €631.38 per tonne on Friday.
The Northern European index was up by €3.96 per tonne week on week and by €33.13 per tonne month on month.
