Jaap Jan Aardenburg: EU has to be more resilient in the face of more challenging conditions
Speaking at the EUROMETAL Steel Day & YISAD Flat Steel Conference held at Istanbul Marriott Hotel Asia on Tuesday, April 8, in cooperation with SteelOrbis, Jaap Jan Aardenburg, head of trade affairs of Tata Steel Nederland, made a presentation on the reasons leading to the widespread adoption of protectionist policies in the global market, how these policies affect the globe and how the EU’s preferred protectionist policies are given shape.
Mr. Aardenburg started his presentation with a general view of Tata Steel Nederland’s recent operations. Tata Steel Nederland has two blast furnaces at its integrated plants and has the capacity to produce more that 7 million mt of finished steel annually in more than 17,000 different specifications.
Employing more than 9,000 workers directly and creating 40,000 indirect job opportunities, Tata Steel Nederland has the second-largest steel service center in Europe. Moreover, the company has already started supplying low-carbon steel to end-users, while it is also aiming to replace one of its blast furnaces by EAF- and DRI-based production by 2030.
Addressing the global protectionist policies, the Tata Steel official stated that free trade has much empirical evidence on why it is better for a country’s economy and outlined several factors leading to the adoption of protectionism.
Listing national security, protection of infant industries, environmental policies, protection of jobs, and retaliation like that taken against Trump’s tariffs this year among these reasons, he pointed to the issue of global excess capacity as the single most important reason leading the global markets towards protectionism.
Mr. Aardenburg stated that global excess capacity is currently 602 million mt, and that the fact that demand has weakened in recent years while capacities have continued to increase has made the problem even worse. Regarding China, the country that has fueled this excess capacity problem the most.
He stated, “Since demand in the Chinese domestic market cannot reach the capacity levels, pressure is being exerted on foreign markets.
We recently heard that China will reduce its production capacity. You can disregard this possibility. Although there is pressure on China in the global market in this direction, one of the biggest key performance indicators of the Chinese government and local administrations is employment, which will eventually diminish in the case of production stoppages. For this reason, I think they will continue production.”
Stating that the EU is also dealing with the energy price crisis caused by the Ukraine-Russia war and the gradually weakening demand for steel, Aardenburg argued that the EU should be resilient in solving these problems.
The EU, he said, which applies fairly fair protection measures, has pursued policies in line with principles such as ensuring a level playing field, ensuring material availability and not imposing a tax on steel imports, but these measures implemented so far have been inadequate.
He added that the EU now acknowledges how important the manufacturing sector is and Trump’s second term as president has increased the necessity to follow a new policy and the Steel and Metal Action Plan prepared in this direction will ensure that the EU protects its competitiveness and its own steel sector.
Tata NL steps up transport by train, vessel
Tata Steel Nederland and Deutsche Bahn (DB) Cargo have signed a contract to transport steel coil by trains powered by green electricity, the steelmaker tells Kallanish.
Every year, 1.2 million tonnes of steel goes by train from IJmuiden to the production sites of Tata Steel Nederland, and to customers in the Netherlands and the rest of Europe. This is largely done via DB Cargo’s wagons. “One freight train pulled by an efficient electric locomotive replaces at least 50 trucks,” says DB Cargo Nederland chief executive Nanouke van ’t Riet.
More than 80% of the transport by train that DB Cargo carries out for Tata Steel Nederland is CO2 free, the company claims.
Tata Steel Nederland has also entered a collaboration with transshipment company RCT Stevedoring and inland shipping cooperative PTC for its subsidiary Tata Steel Duffel, a maker of laminated packaging steel. Steel coil has hitherto been transported by truck from Duffel to IJmuiden for final processing.
In future, the steel coils will be transported by inland barge. This results in a 91% reduction in truck transport between Duffel and IJmuiden, eliminating 1,400 to 1,800 truck movements and reducing road travel by 320,000km, Tata notes.
“This logistical adjustment is not only beneficial for the climate but also for other road users,” says Martin van der Meer, director of Outbound Logistics at Tata Steel Nederland. “The trucks used to travel daily via the Antwerp, Rotterdam, and Amsterdam rings, through the Velsertunnel to IJmuiden. This has now come to an end.”
Christian Koehl Germany
Tata Nederland to import Norway hydrogen, export CO2
Tata Steel Nederland plans to import zero-emission hydrogen from Norway for use in the steelmaking process and also export captured CO2 to Norway for permanent storage.
The steelmaker has signed an agreement with CO2 and hydrogen transportation firm ECOLOG, along with Norwegian producer Gen2 Energy and the Port of Amsterdam, to explore the import of liquid hydrogen.
The hydrogen would be produced in Norway from hydropower and then cooled to liquid form and shipped in specialised vessels owned by ECOLOG. This is imported into the Port of Amsterdam and converted back into a gaseous state before being delivered to Tata Steel and other companies via a planned pipeline network.
A second agreement has been signed by Tata Steel and ECOLOG, along with Horisont Energi, the Port of Amsterdam, OCAP, the Norwegian bank DNB, and ABN AMRO, to explore a corridor for CO2 exports to Norway.
“In the production of steel, even in the new green steel installations, a small amount of CO2 is still emitted. This quantity of CO2 is only a fraction of what is emitted in the production of coal-based steel,” Tata Steel Nederland says in a note sent to Kallanish.
The CO2 will be captured at Tata Steel and other companies in the region. The cold energy released during the conversion of liquid hydrogen to gas at ECOLOG’s Port of Amsterdam terminal will be used to liquefy the CO2 at the same location. In this form, the CO2 can be transported by ship to Horisont Energi’s import terminal in Norway, where it will be permanently stored. This creates a liquid hydrogen/CO2 corridor, with efficient management of energy.
Adam Smith Poland