ARCELOR MITAL AND THE EIB ANNOUNCE 280 MILLION EUROS OF INVESTMENT TO DECARBONISE THE STEEL INDUSTRY

The multinational ArcelorMittal and the European Investment Bank have announced that they will invest around 280 million euros in research and innovation in order to support the steel company’s decarbonisation objectives.

The EUR 280 million loan granted to ArcelorMittal by the European Investment Bank (EIB) backed by the Investment Plan for Europe will help finance the group’s European research and development programme over the period 2021-2023. The project will cover capital expenditure in several EU countries including France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Spain.

In particular, ArcelorMittal Europe is committed to reducing CO 2 emissions intensity by 35% by 2030, and the group has set a target of net zero emissions by 2050. This partnership between the EIB and ArcelorMittal is supported by the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI), a central pillar of the Investment Plan for Europe.

Overall, at least 40% of EFSI infrastructure and innovation projects aim to contribute to climate action in accordance with the Paris Agreement. This project will also contribute to the EU industry’s leadership as a supplier of high-tech steel grades, products and solutions.

New products, process improvements and technical solutions are expected to produce significant positive environmental results in terms of direct and indirect greenhouse gas emission reductions. The research and development activities supported by the new investment will be carried out mainly at ArcelorMittal’s existing R&D facilities in France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Spain.

Greg Ludkovsky, ArcelorMittal’s vice president and head of research and development, says, “The role of our global R&D organization is to create the technology base to ensure ArcelorMittal’s long-term viability as the world’s leading steel and mining company. We will be able to expand our work to develop environmentally sustainable, high value-added, cost-effective and disruptive products and manufacturing processes”.

For his part, Ambroise Fayolle, EIB Vice-President, underlined the fact that “the signing of this agreement between the European public bank and ArcelorMittal will support a major European player in the steel industry with a deep focus on higher value-added steel products. These investments will play a key role in ArcelorMittal’s carbon footprint reduction strategy and will therefore contribute to the European green deal, aligned with the terms of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.

In 2017, the ArcelorMittal Group and the European Investment Bank (EIB) signed a €350 million financing agreement, backed by the Investment Plan for Europe, to help fund the Group’s European research and development programme over the period 2017-2020.

Also in 2020, the EIB granted another EUR 75 million loan to ArcelorMittal supported by InnovFin energy demonstration projects and financed under Horizon 2020 and the European Commission’s NER 300 funding programme.

The latter initiative aims to support ArcelorMittal’s research activities and associated capital expenditure in the field of environmental, climate and energy projects. It will also help the group achieve its ambitious climate action targets and thus reduce the environmental footprint of its manufacturing facilities, steel products and technology solutions.