ArcelorMittal starts steelmaking decarbonisation in Ontario

Steel and mining major ArcelorMittal SA (AMS:MT) last week broke ground on a project to build a new direct reduced iron (DRI) furnace at its factory in Hamilton, Ontario, and announced plans to power the site with green hydrogen.

The scheme represents an investment of CAD 1.8 billion (USD 1.3bn/EUR 1.34bn) and is aimed at decarbonising the production process at the company’s Dofasco plant in the Canadian province, it said on Thursday.

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The initiative will transition the site to direct reduced iron-electric arc furnace (DRI-EAF) steelmaking, which removes coal from the production process. The 2.5-million-tonne DRI furnace will be initially run on natural gas but will be made “hydrogen ready” and will later switch to green hydrogen supplies.

The first onsite building activities will begin in January 2023, while foundation work will commence in 2024. The project should be completed in 2026. It will be financed with CAD 400 million from the government of Canada, while the provincial government will allocate CAD 500 million.

ArcelorMittal aims to reduce the carbon intensity of the steel it produces by 25% by 2030 and become net zero by 2050. In May, it successfully tested the use of green hydrogen in the production of DRI at its facility in Contrecoeur, Quebec.

(CAD 1.0 = USD 0.723/EUR 0.743)