To strengthen the image of our company and to anchor ourselves in the region, we make a.o. use of our social media channels and our neighbor magazine ‘Staal in je buurt’ (Steel in your neighborhood). Our website (belgium.arcelormittal.com) and publications such as this corporate responsibility report are also a valuable source of information for our external stakeholders. 

Social media 

ArcelorMittal Belgium has several social media channels; Facebook, X, LinkedIn and a YouTube channel. In 2022 the Instagram-account ArcelorMittal Belgium was launched and acquired nearly 1,300 followers at the end of 2023.  

Open Company Day  

On Sunday, October 1^st, 2023, we opened our doors to the general public in both Ghent and Liège. To get as many young people as possible excited about engineering, we have lowered the minimum age for the company visit to 12 years old as from 2023. In 2023 a total of 3,275 visitors were welcomed during our Open Company Day. 

Ghent program 2023 

In Ghent, besides a visit to the spectacular hot strip mill, visitors also got a look behind the scenes of the ‘All Weather Terminal’ (AWT), the very first covered loading quay and warehouse in Ghent, where our finished steel products are stored and shipped 24/7. To conclude, they discovered how we recycle and convert some of the carbon-based gases from our blast furnaces into advanced ethanol during a unique visit to the brand new Steelanol plant. 

Liège program 2023 

For the 2023 edition, the FER (Eurogal-Ramet) department opened its doors and offered a tour of the Eurogal and Combi lines. Their role in the steel production process is to protect the steel strip from corrosion by applying a layer of zinc. During the tour, they could see how a steel coil is immersed in a 460°C bath of molten zinc. Visitors also learned more about our unique technology for galvanising and painting steel strip in one coupled line. 

During the Port Day on May 7, 2023, visitors could experience and see North Sea Port from the inside. There was a lot to experience: visits to some 80 companies, virtual tours, demonstrations on the quays and on the water. ArcelorMittal Belgium also took part in the Port Day in Ghent. Visitors took a bus tour of our company and saw how raw materials are unloaded from large seagoing vessels and loaded into the blast furnaces. People also visited the ‘All Weather Terminal’ (AWT). The AWT is an investment in sustainability as the higher shipping capacity by ship saves up to 25,000 truck trips per year. 

In 2023 a total of 423 visitors were welcomed during our Port Day.  

We attach great importance to open communication with local residents about our environmental efforts and challenges. In 2022, we launched a new initiative to invite our neighbors more regularly to an Environmental Moment in the context of a specific theme. During the Environmental Moment, we will show which efforts we are making to reduce environmental impact while listening to the concerns of our neighbors. The first Environment Moment took place in June 2022 for the residents of Rieme. In October 2022 a similar event was organized for the residents in Sint-Kruis-Winkel and in June 2023 for Wachtebeke. In June and September 2023 there were also 2 ‘Information and Participation’- events to provide our neighbors and the authorities more explanation on the breakdown of coke gas desulphurization that had occurred in May 2023.

In 2022 and 2023 several milestones and events on sustainability took place within our cluster. They demonstrate that steel is the cornerstone of a circular economy. 

SMART or SteelMaking with Alternative Reductants (February 2022)

To remain at the forefront of energy and climate transition, ArcelorMittal Belgium launched a new project in collaboration with Vanheede Environment Group, Ghent University and CRM group: “SMART: Steelmaking with Alternative Reductants”. This  project is an innovative process to reduce CO₂-emissions by chemically recovering end-of-life plastics and other waste. In this way, ArcelorMittal Belgium reinforces the specific implementation of its sustainability strategy to reduce CO₂ emission with 35% by 2030 compared to 2018, and – within the framework of the Green Deal – even towards climate neutrality in 2050. The partners in this project play an active role to reach these goals. 

In the steelmaking process, so-called ‘reductants’ are needed to transform iron ore into hot metal. The  SMART project allows us to replace fossil carbon-containing reductants such as coal with circular waste-based reductants, hence the project acronym SMART: SteelMaking with Alternative Reductants.  

Flemish Minister Matthias Diependaele commissioned Belgium’s first subsidy-free wind farm on ArcelorMittal Belgium’s premises in Ghent. The wind farm consists of three wind turbines with a rotor diameter of 162m, a tip height of up to 230m and a capacity of 6 MW per turbine. These are the largest wind turbines in Belgium.  

The construction of the subsidy-free Storm wind farm was completed in 2022. The wind turbines will annually supply more than 45,000 MWh of electricity to our production site in Ghent. This corresponds to the equivalent annual electricity consumption of 13,000 households. The wind farm avoids the emission of 11,225 tons of CO₂ each year. Construction of the wind farm began in spring 2021. 431 local residents and ArcelorMittal employees invested directly in the wind farm via the Storm CV cooperative. 

ArcelorMittal Belgium buys all electricity from the wind farm at a fixed price for twenty years. Our steel company thus assures itself of a guaranteed supply of cheap and renewable energy. Storm can therefore realise the wind farm subsidy-free, without calling on the system of green certificates. 

Wind energy is the cheapest form of electricity production in Belgium. An MWh of electricity from a new wind turbine costs less than an MWh of electricity from, say, a new gas power plant, coal plant, biomass plant or nuclear power plant. 

Manfred Van Vlierberghe, CEO ArcelorMittal Belgium, says: ‘The new wind turbines on our sites are another milestone in renewable energy for ArcelorMittal Belgium. The green electricity generated will be used entirely in our steel production, further reducing our carbon footprint. These wind turbines are also largely made of steel, a striking example of the importance of steel in our day-to-day lives and how steel contributes to renewable energy.’

Fluxys, ArcelorMittal Belgium and North Sea Port move forward to foster decarbonization in Belgium and have started a feasibility study for the Ghent Carbon Hub project, an open-access CO₂ storage and liquefaction hub in the Ghent part of North Sea Port. 

Besides the use of carbon-neutral energy, carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) is essential for CO₂ intensive industries to achieve net zero emissions, especially in hard-to-abate sectors with processes inherently generating CO₂ emissions. 

Fluxys, ArcelorMittal Belgium, and North Sea Port are pressing ahead to develop a key infrastructure accommodating the CCUS chain. Ghent Carbon Hub is set up as an open-access hub to transport and liquefy CO₂ from emitters, provide buffer storage and load the liquefied CO₂ onto ships for onward permanent storage. The feasibility study has now started and commissioning is targeted for 2027. Ghent Carbon Hub will have a capacity to process 6 million ton of CO₂ per annum (MTPA), equivalent to around 15% of Belgian industrial CO₂ emissions.

 Pascal De Buck, CEO Fluxys: “We are delighted to launch this CO₂ infrastructure project with ArcelorMittal Belgium and North Sea Port. Together with our partners, we offer strong and complementary know-how and expertise for providing reliable and efficient decarbonization solutions, essential for achieving climate change objectives and ensuring the long-term viability of the economy. Ghent Carbon Hub is an integral part of the full-scale Fluxys CO₂ approach, offering emitters in North Sea Port and the wider area the opportunity to convey their captured CO₂ through our backbone.” 

At an event held at our steel plant in Ghent on December 8, 2022, we inaugurated our flagship carbon capture and utilization (‘CCU’) project Steelanol. This event was attended by the Prime Minister of Belgium, Alexander De Croo, Flemish Minister-President Jan Jambon, members of the Belgian and Flemish governments, European Investment Bank Vice-President Kris Peeters, ArcelorMittal Executive Chairman, Lakshmi Mittal and ArcelorMittal Europe CEO, Geert Van Poelvoorde. 

The €200 million ‘Steelanol’ project is a first of its kind for the European steel industry. Utilizing cutting edge carbon recycling technology developed by our project partner LanzaTech, the CCU plant uses biocatalysts to transform carbon-rich waste gases from the steelmaking process and from waste biomass into advanced ethanol, which can then be used as a building block to produce a variety of chemical products including transport fuels, paints, plastics, clothing and even cosmetic perfume, hence helping to support the decarbonization efforts of the chemical sector. The advanced ethanol will be jointly marketed by ArcelorMittal and LanzaTech under the Carbalyst® brand name.  

Once production reaches full capacity the Steelanol plant will produce 80 million liters of advanced ethanol, almost half of the total current advanced ethanol demand for fuel mixing in Belgium. It will reduce annual carbon emissions from the Ghent plant by 125,000 ton. Other partners involved in the Steelanol project are Primetals Technologies and E4tech.   

Speaking at the event, Alexander De Croo, Prime Minister of Belgium, said:  

“I am pleased to see ArcelorMittal is taking bold and innovative steps by decarbonizing its steel production at its new installation in Ghent. This is an important step in the fight against climate change while safeguarding our future competitiveness and securing Belgian jobs. By investing in clean energy technologies, ArcelorMittal is not only helping to lower carbon emissions, but it is also setting the standard for the industry. The only way forward is cleaner production that leads to better products.”      

Lakshmi Mittal, ArcelorMittal Executive Chairman, said:  

“ArcelorMittal Ghent is widely regarded as one of the finest steel plants in Europe, staffed by talented, committed and forward-thinking people. We intend to ensure that reputation endures into the future and I believe the work being undertaken here lays the ground for what the steel plant of the future will look like. This is a steel plant which is embracing the latest innovative technologies; which is using sources of circular carbon; which captures and re-uses as many of its waste products as possible, recycling them into something of value; and which is preparing for a future when green hydrogen will remove the need to use any fossil carbon. It is a strong example of what is possible with energy, effort and of course, brilliant scientific minds. It also demonstrates what can be achieved through partnership, so I must thank the Belgian and Flemish governments and the EIB for the support they are providing towards our efforts to transition to net-zero steelmaking.”  

ArcelorMittal Europe CEO, Geert Van Poelvoorde, said:  

“Inaugurating the European steel industry’s first carbon capture and utilization plant is an important moment for our European business, and for our target to reduce the carbon intensity of the steel we produce in Europe by 35 per cent by 2030. We have long held the view that multiple technologies will be required for our industry to reach net zero, and today is an important proof point of our commitment to developing and deploying those technologies as quickly as possible, and to making meaningful progress this decade. Our ambition is clear, to lead our industry’s efforts to reach net zero. It is a huge challenge, but also a tremendous opportunity. A low-carbon European economy needs low-carbon emissions steel to build its renewable energy infrastructure, low-carbon buildings and electric vehicles. And our customers expect us to deliver low-emissions steel today. Projects such as Steelanol and Torero will help us to meet that demand through our suite of XCarb® products.” 

In December 2023, we commissioned Torero, an installation to convert waste wood into biocoal in order to reduce fossil coal consumption at our steel plant in Ghent. This project will reduce annual carbon emissions by 112,500 tons. The Torero plant will convert 88,000 tons of waste wood into 37,500 tons of biocoal each year. 

The use of bio-coal in the blast furnace process will result in bio-gas which will be transformed into ethanol by the Steelanol facility which can then be used as a building block to produce a variety of chemical products including transport fuels, paints, plastics, clothing and even cosmetic perfume, hence helping to support the decarbonization efforts of the chemical sector. The ethanol will be jointly marketed by ArcelorMittal and LanzaTech under the Carbalyst® brand name. 

Manfred Van Vlierberghe (CEO ArcelorMittal Belgium): “ArcelorMittal Belgium has the ambition to decarbonize its steel production. In this context, we are fully engaged in implementing an action plan to reduce CO₂ emissions by 35% by 2030 compared to 2018 and to become climate neutral by 2050. We want to reduce not only our carbon footprint, but also our waste footprint – our steel company has a roadmap to zero carbon emissions and zero waste. We will do this step by step, in a responsible way, and the commissioning of the Torero plant is one such step – partially replacing fossil coal with biocoal. This fits perfectly with our XCarb^® program that brings together all of ArcelorMittal’s products and steelmaking activities with reduced, low and zero carbon emissions, as well as broader initiatives and innovation projects, into a single effort aimed at achieving demonstrable progress toward net zero carbon steel.” 

In July 2021, several ArcelorMittal sites, including ArcelorMittal Belgium, obtained the ResponsibleSteel™ certification. ArcelorMittal Belgium’s steel production sites (Ghent, Liège, Geel and Genk), Luxembourg (Belval, Differdange and Rodange) and Germany (Bremen and Eisenhüttenstadt) are the first steel companies worldwide to be independently audited and meet the standards for ResponsibleSteel™, the first global multi-stakeholder standards and certification initiative for the entire steel value chain, from mining through production to sales and distribution. 

The ResponsibleSteel™ audit process enables each site to demonstrate that its production processes meet rigorously defined standards for a wide range of social, environmental and governance criteria. The standard is based on 12 principles with a variety of criteria and underlying requirements.  

1. Corporate Leadership 
2. Social, Environmental and Governance Management Systems 
3. Responsible Sourcing of Input Materials
4. Decomissioning and closure
5. Occupational Health and Safety 
6. Labor Rights
7. Human Rights
8. Stakeholder Engagement and communication 
9. Local Communities 
10. Climate change and greenhouse gas emissions
11. Noise, Emissions, Effluents and Waste
12. Water Stewardship
13. Biodiversity

To receive ResponsibleSteel™ certification, each site must undergo a detailed third-party audit, with an independent Certification Committee making the final decision on certification. ArcelorMittal worked with international auditor AFNOR and its German subsidiary GUTcert, specialized companies in certification and assessment services. The first audit took place in February 2020. 

Geert Van Poelvoorde, CEO, ArcelorMittal Europe says: “Responsible production techniques and high ethical and business standards are becoming increasingly important for our customers and end users. The ResponsibleSteel™ certification reassures our customers that we meet expectations for setting carbon reduction targets and environmental and social standards at every stage of production. Many teams in ArcelorMittal are involved in the certification process and I would like to congratulate them on their hard work to be among the first sites to receive ResponsibleSteel™ certification – this is quite an achievement!”