Employees at work on the ArcelorMittal site in Fos-sur-mer (Bouches-du-Rhône) on February 22, 2023 (AFP / Christophe SIMON)
It is one of the French sites generating the most greenhouse gases and pollutants, but the ArcelorMittal steelworks in Fos-sur-Mer, near Marseille, promises a transformation to greatly reduce its emissions, denounced by local residents.
With 2,500 direct jobs and 1,500 subcontractor employees on a 1,600 hectare site in the “industrial-port” zone of Fos, one of the largest in France, the plant of the world’s second largest steelmaker can produce four million tonnes of steel. per year.
With Dunkirk (North), where ArcelorMittal operates the largest steelworks in Europe, they were designated in January by the government to become the first “low carbon industrial zones” (ZIBAC) in France.
A label that will unlock state aid because this decarbonization is very expensive. For Dunkirk and Fos, ArcelorMittal – 4% of total French emissions – has planned 1.7 billion euros of investment.
By receiving in November the bosses of the 50 French industrial sites emitting the most CO2, the main responsible for global warming, President Emmanuel Macron had offered them a “pact”: doubling public aid to 10 billion euros in exchange for a doubling of their emissions reduction efforts.
Objective of the Fos site: -10% emissions from 2025, -35% in 2030, carbon neutrality in 2050.
An ArcelorMittal employee in Fos-sur-mer (Bouches-du-Rhône) on February 22, 2023 (AFP / Christophe SIMON)
“Steel is infinitely recyclable, it is on this property that we will rely to achieve our objectives”, explains Bruno Ribo, director of ArcelorMittal Méditerranée, during a press visit.
First step, the construction by early 2024 of an electric “ladle furnace” to rapidly increase the proportion of recycled steel in production by improving the heating of molten metal baths. Cost: 73 million, including 15 financed under the France Relance plan.
Then, “before 2030, we will replace one of the two blast furnaces, the main greenhouse gas emitters, with an electric arc furnace”, avoiding the traditional use of coal to remove oxygen from iron ore.
“A + jumbo + oven with a capacity of 310 tonnes. There are only three similar in the world today”, enthuses Christian Vromen, head of decarbonization projects. The investment amounts to “hundreds of millions”, he notes.
– “Vital issue” –
Electrification will also cause energy bills to skyrocket. “It is essential that there are accompanying policies”, warns Bruno Ribo. ArcelorMittal is precisely waiting for a green light from the European Commission to finance its decarbonization plan.
A safety sign on the ArcelorMittal site in Fos-sur-mer (Bouches-du-Rhône) on February 22, 2023. (AFP/Christophe SIMON)
The issue is “vital for the planet”, the steel industry representing around 6% of global emissions, argues the director, also slipping that this transformation “is going in the direction desired by local residents”.
Like the NGOs, the inhabitants have been denouncing for years the pollution caused by the factories of Fos-sur-Mer. Studies have shown higher than average chronic disease rates in the area.
At the end of 2018, ArcelorMittal received an administrative fine for air pollution. In July 2021, the company was ordered to pay 30,000 euros in damages to France Nature Environnement for violating the law on pollutant emissions.
ArcelorMittal explains that it has invested more than 100 million euros for the environment over 2010/2020 and has also built a filtration system costing more than 20 million euros to further reduce dust emissions.
Raw material containers at the ArcelorMittal site in Fos-sur-mer (Bouches-du-Rhône) on February 22, 2023 (AFP/Christophe SIMON)
“Decarbonization will allow a reduction of other emissions of the same order of magnitude as those of CO2”, assures Mr. Vromen.
“Despite all the work, there is still a lot of pollution”, relativizes Daniel Moutet, president of the Association for the defense and protection of the Gulf of Fos coastline. “It has to move faster. It’s just a question of money”.
Supported by the association, local residents filed a complaint against three factories, including the steelworks, for “neighborhood disturbance”. A first was dismissed in April 2022, the court considering the nuisances “normal” because resulting from a “choice of society”. Other complaints, against X, are under examination.
In a February 13 study, the NGOs Carbon Market Watch and New Climate Institute deemed ArcelorMittal’s global emission reduction targets for 2030 “moderately” credible and those for 2050 “weakly credible”.
© 2023 AFP
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