Germany promises funding for ArcelorMittal’s decarbonization project

The German government has pledged €2.5 billion to decarbonise steel production at ArcelorMittal’s Bremen and Eisenguttenstadt plants. The financing must be approved by the European Commission (EC). Kallanish reportd about it.

The Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Protection intends to support the ArcelorMittal DRIBE project for the transition to production using DRI based on green hydrogen. The company submitted an application for financial support to the project to the EC in 2021.

According to the executive director of ArcelorMittal Germany Rainer Blaszek, the company is currently taking concrete steps to prepare for the construction of new plants at the Bremen and Eisenhuttenstadt sites – those that are possible before the EU funding commitment.

«This will help us achieve a change in the way of production, which requires a complete change in technology. As soon as all the approvals are received and the appropriate conditions are created, we will be able to prepare the next phase and hopefully start the implementation quickly,» he noted.

In 2021, ArcelorMittal announced its plan to switch to DRI-EAF technology at its German plants and produce up to 3.5 million tons of steel per year with lower carbon emissions.

As GMK Center reported earlier, the Minister of Economy of Germany, Robert Habek stated, that he will do everything possible to preserve the country’s steel industry, contributing to the decarbonization of its production processes. According to him, the industry needs to be reformed, but it will happen in Germany, not outside of it.

Also, the German government announced the launch of the program of assistance to industry in the conditions of significant costs for energy resources, which provides for the financing of projects of transition to carbon-neutral production technologies. The total fund of the project will be about €50 billion. This program is created in contrast to similar ones in other regions of the world, in particular in the USA, which can encourage EU companies to relocate.