Tata Steel to invest Eur65 million in sustainable steel production at IJmuiden

Tata Steel will invest Eur65 million ($64 million) in the the engineering package of the hydrogen-based manufacturing route for its site at IJmuiden, the Netherlands, the company said Oct. 25.

The investment will make steel production at IJmuiden more sustainable, replacing the current blast furnace technology with direct reduction plants and electric furnaces before 2030 with the aim of becoming carbon neutral by 2045.

Tata Steel Nederland has signed contracts with three companies — McDermott, Danieli and Hatch — for the further technical preparations of the hydrogen route, it said.

The new DRI plants will be built at IJmuiden and all existing plants will remain in operation until the DRI is up and running, which guarantees continuity of supply throughout the transition, it said.

The company also said it has completed major projects at its hot strip mill and main cold rolling mill at IJmuiden. The hot strip mill will now be able to process the strongest types of strip steel.

The completion of the reconfiguration of the cold rolling mill will result in an improvement in the surface quality and the development of new UHSS steel grades needed to meet the demands of the automotive market. In addition, the key automotive hot dip galvanizing line in IJmuiden will be also upgraded within the next six months, it said.

Tata Steel Nederland has also signed a memorandum of understanding with Ford in Europe to supply the carmaker with Zeremis green steel once the IJmuiden steelworks switches to green hydrogen-based steelmaking.

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed hot-rolled coil in Northwest Europe down Eur10 at Eur650/mt ex-works Ruhr Oct. 24.

The agreement makes Ford the first customer committed to offtake the green steel that Tata Steel plans to produce via the hydrogen route.

“While we are transitioning to become a producer of large quantities of high-quality green steel, we can already supply our customers with a significant amount of high-quality low-CO2 steel today and thus make their product offering more sustainable,” Hans van den Berg, Tata Steel Nederland chairman said. “By aligning our sustainability ambitions with customers like Ford, we can create an early market for green steel, speed up the transition and meet the expectations of society at large.”

— Annalisa Villa