Like everything else in society, steel must continue to evolve and become more and more sustainable. Our goal is to build a better world with innovative steel products. We use technologically advanced processes that consume less energy, emit significantly less carbon and reduce costs. We produce steels that are purer, stronger and recyclable. Steel for electric vehicles and renewable energy infrastructure that will support society’s energy transition.
We are strongly committed to product innovation
Our ambition is to produce innovative products with high added value that guarantee a sustainable lifestyle. More than 50% of the products we offer to our customers today did not exist 7 years ago. We continued our product development program in 2022 and 2023, reaching a number of important milestones.
A few of our innovative products:
Third-generation advanced high-strength steels
As a major center of excellence for advanced high-strength steels (AHSS) and ultra-high-strength steels (UHSS), we have invested heavily in product innovation over the past years. In total, this involves nearly 250 million euros to produce the 3rd generation of advanced products through our lines in Belgium such as Fortiform®, Quench & Partitioning steels, Dual Phase High Deformability (DP HD) steels, Martensitic (MS) steels and Jet Vapor Deposition (JVD) coated products.
It concerns investments in a number of breakthrough technologies, such as the Quench & Partitioning furnace technology on the Sidgal 3 Upgrade hot dip galvanizing installation in Ghent, the JVD technology and the HOWAC-TWICE cooling technology on the Kessales continuous annealing line. Within ArcelorMittal Europe – Flat Products, these steels are only manufacturable on these two lines, allowing ArcelorMittal Belgium to provide a unique product offer.
The development of this third generation of high-strength steels was essential to meet the expectations of our automotive customers, to reduce the weight of cars, reduce CO2 emissions, increase safety and respond to the challenges in the electrification of cars.
Automotive parts made with the Fortiform® ultra-high-strength steels are 10 to 20% lighter, more economical and therefore better for the environment. As a result, our automotive customers will be able to reduce emissions from passenger cars. In addition, the sustainable Fortiform® steel is also safer in the event of a car crash.
The 1st group of the 3rd generation ultra-high-strength steels (with a 10% weight reduction) was launched in 2017. Several automotive manufacturers are since using Fortiform® steel in their car models as they offer the best possible compromise between cost, performance (formability) and durability. In 2022 and 2023, we made strong progress with the extension of our Fortiform® steel grade offer to new strength levels. Since 2022 Fortiform®980 is commercially available and Fortiform®1180 is at the verge of being added to our product portfolio.
In 2020 and 2021 we expanded our product offer in the group of Dual Phase High Deformability (DP DH) steels, adding both a lower (DP600 DH) and a higher strength level (DP980 DH) to our hot dip coated DP DH portfolio. In 2022 and 2023, our hot dip coated DP780 DH is being used by an increasing number of customers who like to benefit from the extra formability offered by this grade, while keeping the forming process close to the experience with regular Dual Phase grades and we have had our first commercial orders in hot dip coated DP980 DH.
Our product range in Martensitic steels (MS), manufactured on our continuous annealing line in Kessales (Liège), was also expanded in 2022 and 2023. Martensitic steelgrades are ideally suited for roll forming of parts for the reinforcement of the car body and enable to strengthen the battery pack used in electric cars, protecting the batteries in case of a crash. We are now able to offer strength levels to our customers starting from 1200 MPa minimal Tensile Strength to as high as 1700 MPa, as well in uncoated as coated variants.
In 2022 and 2023 we continued the effort in the further expansion of the Jet Vapor Deposition (JVD) product range, enabling to offer new steels and extend dimensions.
JVD is a groundbreaking process, both in terms of production process and product development. It adds two new product families to ArcelorMittal's unique range of metallic coatings: Jetgal® and Jetskin™.
- Jetgal® is the brand name for the JVD zinc coating applied to steels intended for the automotive industry. Among other things, it has been developed for ultra-high-strength steels such as Fortiform® and MS products, which are produced in ArcelorMittal Gent and Liège.
High-strength steels are also being developed in the hot rolled pickled & oiled product range and used for other industrial market segments. Amstrong® high-strength and advanced high-strength pickled & oiled steels produced in Ghent, for example, are ideal for reducing the thickness and weight of constructions while increasing the load capacity. The Amstrong® range offers significant advantages for a wide range of applications such as semi-trailers and tippers, excavators and agricultural vehicles. ArcelorMittal has developed a digital tool to help commercial engineering teams calculate weight and cost savings for customers who are considering switching from standard steel grades to Amstrong®. Since 2018, the share of Amstrong® products in our sales figures has increased significantly thanks to the promotion of our commercial organization.
In 2022 and 2023, we continued to work with close attention on product improvements regarding flatness as well as expansion of the range of high-strength steels up to 980MPa level for the automotive and industrial markets.
The Magnelis® coating consists of a combination of zinc, aluminium and magnesium. The corrosion resistance of Magnelis® is significantly higher than that of traditional zinc-based coatings. The coating was developed in our Eurogal hot dip galvanizing line in Liège and subsequently used industrially in other European hot dip galvanizing lines in Germany and Spain. Magnelis® coated products are used in the supporting structure of solar panels, garage doors, gutters etc.
In view of the growing demand for this product, we continued to expand our Magnelis® product range in 2022 and 2023 by developing higher strength levels (construction grade S700GD is close to commercialization), by developing thicker Magnelis® coatings (ZM620 has been opened for well-defined grades and strip thickness) and by offering Easyfilm on Magnelis®. In addition, we significantly increased our production capacity by starting Magnelis® production in the hot dip galvanizing line Sidgal 1 in Ghent, which has since grown significantly in our orderbook share.
Magnelis® is the product of choice for applications in the solar energy segment. Many of our direct customers produce profiles and structures that are used in various solar energy solutions, such as solar farms, industrial roof panels, concentrated parabolic towers, ... Magnelis® is now used worldwide for mega-projects. For example, ArcelorMittal supplied 20 kt of Magnelis® for a 1.2 GW project in Abu Dhabi. We also supplied Magnelis® coated steel to other projects of no less than 1.8 GW (this corresponds to the capacity of 2 nuclear power plants!).
With a volume of 700,000 tons of organic coated products per year, ArcelorMittal Belgium leads the way within ArcelorMittal Europe - Flat Products for the production of organic coated steel.
One of our new products with organic coating (pre-painted) is Granite® HDXtreme. It has a coating system that provides a high degree of protection against UV radiation and corrosion. Granite® HDXtreme contains no chromates or heavy metals and is 100% recyclable. It is highly durable and has a lower carbon footprint compared to alternative solutions.
The strength of Granite® HDXtreme comes from its 75µm three-layer coating system. Each layer performs a different but integral function. The primer layer plays a key role in corrosion protection. On top of that comes a second layer, which ensures the durability of the steel and provides the final color. The coating is finished with a varnish layer that adds texture to the coating, increases the durability and robustness of the surface and improves the UV resistance potential of Granite® HDXtreme.
Granite® HDXtreme's weather resistance already exceeds the requirements of the latest European standards. Its exceptional UV resistance provides color stability for many years. Extensive experience and testing, including in highly corrosive coastal locations, lead to a long-term guarantee of up to 40 years for Granite® HDXtreme. The warranty applies to roofs and facades as well as to the installation of photovoltaic modules on roofs. Designed in consultation with architects and designers, Granite® HDXtreme is available in a huge color palette and three different finishes: satin, matte and shimmering.
Our Combiline in Liège (Ivoz-Ramet) is a galvanizing line combined with an organic coating line working in a continuous process. On this Combiline we have been producing Optigal® coated steel for several years now. Optigal® is a new generation of coating substrates, with a unique alloy composition of zinc, aluminium and magnesium, which ensures superior corrosion resistance and makes it possible to reduce the thickness of the metallic coating and thus helps to safeguard scarce natural raw materials.
In 2021 we expanded our capacity in Optigal®, by further increasing the share of Optigal® on the Combiline and by starting up Optigal® on the hot dip galvanizing line Sidgal 2 in Ghent. Since then, Optigal® has grown to become the substrate of choice for organic coated products.
Optigal® has already been approved by most of the independent European certification bodies, such as CSTB and DIBt, and can be used throughout the European market. It is also fully compliant with the REACH regulations. The production of Optigal® is rising year after year.
XCARB®: our commitment to produce carbon-neutral steel
Our customers are increasingly climate-conscious and demanding green steel. To this end, ArcelorMittal Europe has developed the XCarb® concept, in which CO2 reduction is converted into an equivalent volume of green steel.
XCarb® will eventually bring together all ArcelorMittal’s products and steelmaking activities with reduced, low and zero carbon emissions, as well as broader initiatives and green innovation projects, into a single effort aimed at achieving demonstrable progress towards carbon-neutral steel. Specifically, it involves 3 XCarb® brand initiatives:
XCarb® green steel certificates
Across all ArcelorMittal Europe – Flat Products activities, we invest in a wide range of initiatives to reduce carbon emissions from blast furnaces. These initiatives include our “Smart Carbon” flagship projects, such as Torero (which converts biomass into bio-coal to replace coal in the blast furnace) and Steelanol (which captures carbon-rich blast furnace gas and converts it into ethanol, which can then be used to make low-carbon chemicals). Another example is capturing hydrogen-rich residual gases from the steelmaking process to inject them into the blast furnace to reduce the use of coal.
These effort-intensive investments lead to significant CO2 savings, which can be passed on to customers in the form of the steel industry’s first-ever certification system. CO2 savings are aggregated, independently insured and then converted into XCarb® green steel certificates based on a conversion factor that reflects the average CO2 intensity of integrated steel production in Europe. The system thus allows customers to purchase certificates added to their physical steel orders, allowing them to report a reduction in their Scope 3 carbon emissions in accordance with the ‘GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard’.
XCarb® recycled and renewably produced
‘XCarb® recycled and renewable produced’ is designed for products manufactured via the Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) route using steel scrap. ‘Recycled and renewably produced’ means that the physical steel is made from recycled material (scrap) using renewable electricity, giving it an extremely low carbon footprint that can be as low as about 300 kg of CO2 per ton of finished steel when the metal is 100% scrap. This offer to the customer applies to both flat and long products. The electricity used in steel production is independently verified and given a ‘Guarantee of Origin’, assuring it originates from renewable sources.
XCarb® innovation fund
ArcelorMittal has established an innovation fund that will invest up to $100 million annually in innovative companies developing breakthrough or groundbreaking technologies that will accelerate the steel industry’s transition to carbon-neutral steel production. To be eligible for funding, companies must develop technologies that will support ArcelorMittal on its path to low-carbon steel production. The technology must also be commercially scalable.
