Veolia is a major player in ecological innovation. We’ll be looking at its involvement in nuclear waste management,

(this article will evolve over time, as Veolia is a very large company that we will no doubt be mentioning regularly on this site)

A short history of Veolia (in brief)

Veolia’s history goes back to the 18th century, with the Compagnie des Eaux de Paris. The Compagnie Générale des Eaux was born a little later, on December 14, 1853. The company diversified considerably from the 1980s onwards, taking over Compagnie Générale d’Entreprises Automobiles in 1989, and investing in the media, notably by participating in the creation of Canal in 1983 and Cegetel in 1996…

In May 1998, it became Vivendi, with two divisions: a communications division and an environmental division. It’s the latter that interests us here. In 2003, it was renamed Veolia Environnement. There are now several divisions: water, waste management, energy services and transportation. The latter (transport) was sold in 2013 and became Transdev. In 2014, Veolia Environnement officially became Veolia.

Activities of interest

We’ve seen Veolia play an important role in a number of areas. It presents itself globally as a “global reference in optimized resource management”. In particular, it is active in

  • water treatment
  • through its expertise in robotics

Water treatment

Veolia had notably been called in urgently by Tepco to decontaminate the water used to cool the Fukushima reactors following the disaster, in 2011.

In May 2016, Veolia reportedly set up the world’s largest reprocessing plant in Hong Kong.

Water treatment can be a source of methane. In February 2022, Veolia and TotalEnergies signed an agreement to develop biomethane from Veolia’s waste and wastewater treatment centers

Robotics expertise

Veolia also supplied a robot to Tepco in 2014, to inspect Fukushima’s Reactor 2 and survey the damage caused by the disaster.

Creation of subsidiaries and acquisitions

Remediation of irradiated equipment

One of Veolia’s activities is the remediation of irradiated equipment. The group has several companies operating in this sector, most notably Kurium and Asteralis.

Asteralis is Veolia’s subsidiary specializing in the nuclear sector.

Kurion was originally an American company specializing in low-level radioactive waste remediation techniques. Its work is said to have helped stabilize the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. It was acquired by Veolia for $350 million in February 2016. It was renamed Veolia Nuclear Solutions (VNS).

Here is the organizational chart presented by Veolia:

https://www.veolia.com/fr/groupe/medias/communiques-de-presse/veolia-finalise-l-acquisition-de-kurion-et-poursuit-sa-strategie-de-developpement-dans-l-assainissement-des-equipements-et-dechets-nucleaires

New projects

Veolia has launched major Greentech projects.

In the nuclear field, through its subsidiary Asterialis, Veolia has founded :

  • Graphitech, with EDF (Cyclife), to dismantle graphite power plants.
  • Waste2glass, with EDF (Cyclife), to develop and market Geomelt, a waste vitrification process.

FAQ

What kind of company is Veolia?

Veolia is a French multinational with over 200,000 employees worldwide. It specializes in water, energy and waste cycle management.

Who are Veolia’s customers?

Veolia works mainly with the public sector (governments and local authorities), but also with major private industrial companies.

What is Veolia’s goal?

One of Veolia’s ambitions is to play a central role in ecological transformation.

How much is Veolia worth?

Veolia is worth $20.83 billion as of January 20, 2023.

The Vicat Group is a cement manufacturer employing 9,500 people worldwide and generating sales in excess of €3 billion. It is developing several solutions to reduce its carbon footprint, as the cement industry accounts for 7 to 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions.


Vicat Group history

The history of the Vicat group is nothing less than the legacy of one of the most important inventors of modern cement: Louis Vicat. While building a bridge in Souillac, Dordogne, Vicat studied hydraulic binder compositions and published his theory of hydraulicity in 1818. He thus laid the foundations of modern cement, although he did not patent it, as he wanted his discovery to benefit as many people as possible. It was his son, Joseph Vicat, who founded the company in 1853 (which did not take the name Vicat & Cie until 1867).

Until the 1970s, the company was purely national.

In 1974, the company bought a cement plant in the United States, then accelerated its international expansion from 1987 onwards (US, Turkey, Senegal, etc.). Today, the group not only offers cement, but also concrete (= a ready-to-use material), aggregates and a number of ancillary activities (“transport, bag manufacture, paper production, building chemistry and finishing products”). Above all, they have developed low-carbon solutions, which we’ll be talking about shortly.

According to their documents, by 2021, the group had, among others:

  • 16 cement plants and 72 aggregates quarries
  • sold 28 million tonnes of cement in 2021, 10 million m3 of concrete and 24 million tonnes of aggregates
  • generated sales of 3.123 billion euros and employed nearly 9,500 people.

Vicat and the environment

The cement industry is oneof the most polluting industrial sectors, accounting for 7 to 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to the phenomenal quantities of rock that have to be extracted and transported, the transformation of rock into clinker (the basic ingredient of cement) produces enormous quantities of CO2: on the one hand, the stone has to be heated to very high temperatures, and on the other, the carbon it contains has to be released. In all, for the production of one tonne of clincker, 330 kg of CO2 are generated for heat production and 535 kg of CO2 for the chemical reaction alone.

The Vicat Group has announced that it is working to reduce its carbon footprint and is said to have invested 23 million euros in its decarbonization projects in 2019 and 52 million in 2020. (Business report 2020) It appears to be working on several avenues: new formulations, the use of alternative fuels and, more generally, the mobilization of synergies between cement decarbonization and hydrogen.

New formulations

Vicat has developed cement formulations that would be eco-responsible. This would be the case with its Naturat range, “composed of natural pozzolans from the Auvergne volcanoes”.

They have also developed a range of“DECA” concrete. DECA1 would have a carbon footprint reduced by 10-20%, and DECA2 by >20%. Added to this would be “Oxygène” trucks (= trucks with a rotating cylinder where concrete is mixed), running on liquefied biomethane (and electricity?).

Using alternative fuels

One of the avenues already explored by the cement industry is the use of alternative fuels to produce clinker. You’re going to have waste or biomass. As far as waste is concerned, I’m not sure about the positive ecological impact (to be verified, but Vicat’s press release suggests that there are no savings in emissions). Vicat announces that the share of biomass used in 2020 avoided the emission of 685,000 tonnes of CO2. (Business report 2020)

One possibility would be to use hydrogen as an alternative fuel. The flame characteristics of gas are difficult to reproduce with biomass or waste. This could be achieved by combining them with hydrogen. This is one way of producing low-carbon cement.

Hydrogen production and cement plants

Another synergy between hydrogen and cement plants lies in the use of the heat produced by the process to power certainelectrolysis processes operating at high temperatures.

Vicat is one of the founding partners of Genvia, the French company developing reversible high-temperature electrolyzers. With an efficiency of over 95% and the possibility of acting as a fuel cell, this would make it viable to use hydrogen as a means of stabilizing electricity supplies. The link with the cement plant is that these electrolyzers need heat to operate and could reuse the waste heat produced by cement production.

Hynovi: carbon capture and methanol production

The Hynovi project would capture 40% of the CO2 emitted by a cement plant (in Isère) and combine it with hydrogen produced by a 330MW electrolyzer (supplied by EDF subsidiary Hynamics) to produce 200,000 tonnes of methanol. This would avoid the emission of around 500,000 tonnes of CO2/year. It’s a great project, mobilizing both the synergies between hydrogen and cement production (heat cogeneration) and betweenhydrogen and CO2. This avoids the problems of transporting and storing dihydrogen caused by the physical characteristics of the tiny molecule.

Unfortunately, it seems to be at an early stage:

As part of the “Projet Important d’Intérêt Européen Commun (PIIEC/IPCEI)” call for projects, Hynovi has been pre-notified by the French government and is currently being examined by the European Commission.

Vicat, September 9, 2021

FAQ

What is Louis Vicat’s nationality?

Louis Joseph Vicat, who invented modern cement with his theory of hydraulicity in 1818, was a French engineer.

What is the main constituent of cement?

The composition of cement depends on the type of cement. The best quality cements are essentially composed of clinker.

Tesla is a manufacturer of electric cars. Although it has only been in existence since 2003, the company is worth as much as the 9 biggest carmakers combined.


Tesla history

The Tesla Foundation

Tesla was founded on July 1, 2003 by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning under the name Tesla Motors. The idea was to create “a carmaker that was also a technology company”.

Elon Musk arrived as an investor, investing 6.5 and 7.5 million euros in the first round of financing in February 2004. He then became Chairman of the Board.

These three people, along with the first two employees (Ian Wright and J.B.Straubel), who joined Tesla in 2003 and 2004 respectively, are considered the co-founders of Tesla Motors.

A revolutionary electric car: the Roadster

From the outset, Tesla’s strategy was to start with high-end sports cars and then move on to more mass-market vehicles.

The cornerstone of this strategy was the Tesla Roadster: an electric sports car, which was produced from 2008 to 2012.

This period brought many organizational changes. Eberhard was ousted as CEO in 2007, before leaving the company in January 2008, followed by the other co-founder, Marc Tarpenning, in the same month. Elon Musk became CEO in October 2008.

The company also raised several rounds of financing, bringing the total raised to $187 million in January 2009. Elon Musk added a further $70 million to this sum, and the company obtained a $465 million loan from the US Department of Energy.

Tesla on the stock market, energy model S, X

The production of the Model S takes the company to a new level. In 2010, Tesla buys a former factory in Frémont for $42 million, to be known as the “Tesla Factory”. The following month, in June, Tesla Motors goes public. It raises $226 million.

Production of the Roadster is halted in January 2012, and in June the company’s second car is launched: the“Model S” luxury sedan. It would become the world’s best-selling electric car in 2015 and 2016, despite its prohibitive price: over $70,000.

In April 2015, Tesla also enters the energy storage market with its Powerwall domestic and Powerpack industrial batteries. It received orders worth $800 million in the following weeks. To build them, the first gigafactory, planned back in 2014, is built in Nevada. It was inaugurated on July 29, 2016.

The second Gigafactory was also launched in 2014 in the city of Buffalo, New York, to produce photovoltaic cells. It has been operational since August 2017.

The company’s third vehicle, the “Model X” luxury SUV, was launched in September 2015.

In 2016, it acquires Solarcity, a company that manufactures, finishes and installs photovoltaic solar panels.

Tesla conquers the market

The Tesla Model 3 goes on sale in July 2017. Less expensive than its predecessors, it was aimed at the mass market, with success: from its launch, it mobilized 455,000 pre-orders … The company nevertheless had production problems honoring them all.

It is expanding its capacities with several new “gigafactories”:

  • The Giga Shanghai plant in 2019, opening on December 30, 2019
  • The Giga Berlin, announced in 2019 and scheduled to open in late 2021
  • The Giga Texas, for which construction began in November 2020

The company becomes profitable: after 4 cumulative profitable quarters, it enters the S&P500 index and immediately becomes its 6th largest company.

Tesla’s market capitalization rises from 2020. On January 10, Tesla becomes the most valuable American automaker, and on June 10, 2020, its market capitalization exceeds that of BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen combined. The following month, it reached $206 billion, surpassing that of Toyota, then the world’s highest-valued automaker. It multiplied by 4 again that same year, reaching $848 billion in January 2021, more than the 9 biggest automakers combined and the 5th most valuable company in the USA…

Tesla car models

Tesla has marketed 5 models:

  • Roadster
  • Model S
  • Model X
  • Model 3
  • Model Y

The automaker also announced the Tesla Roadster II.

Tesla Roadster

Unveiled on July 19, 2006, the Roadster went into series production on March 17, 2008. It already had a range of 370 km and could accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in 3.7 seconds. These were records for the time.

It cost around €120,000 or $125,000 and sold 2,680 units. Production stopped at the end of 2011.

Tesla Model S

A luxury sedan launched in 2012 with a 58.5 kWh battery, it had an EPA range of 335 km. Its battery can now reach 98 kWh and its EPA range 539 km. The 2021 model will go even further, with a range of 628 km to 837 km. Prices range from €89,990 to €139,990, depending on the model.

In 2015, Challenge tested a model priced at €128,300 with options. O1net also offers an interesting test with a model priced at 85,000€.

Tesla Model X

The Model X is a family SUV launched in 2015. Its launch price will be between $57,400 (€43,493) and $100,000 (€75,770).

At launch, it will feature a 70-90 kWh battery with an EPA range of 322-414 km. It is now 100 kWh and offers an EPA range of 465 km.

It exceeded 70,000 sales in 2017.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1d/Tesla_Model_X_90D_(36386957340).jpg?uselang=fr
Tesla Model X seen from the back. Credits: Wikipedia

Tesla Model 3

The Model 3 had been planned since 2007, as part of the aforementioned strategy of moving from luxury to mainstream car. It went on sale in 2017 with a 50.2 kWh to 74.5 kWh battery, offering an NEDC range of 445 to 668 km.

The battery is now 52.2 kWh to 77.4 kWh, for an NEDC range of 508 to 657 km. The price is much more affordable, with the base version available at €43,800 before environmental bonus, €36,800 after.

File:First generation of Tesla Model 3, Paris area - 2021-03-19.jpg
Tesla Model 3. Credits: Wikipedia

Tesla Model Y

Available from 2020, the Tesla Model Y is an SUV with a WLTP range of 480 to 540 km, powered by a 77.4 kWh (usable) battery. On the freeway, it can do 350 to 390 km in one go.

The basic price tag is €63,000 or €70,000.

Projects

A number of announced models are not yet on the market.

Tesla Roadster II

The new version of Tesla’s famous sports car is scheduled for 2020 at a price of $200,000. It could accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in 1.1 seconds and exceed 400 km/h.

Tesla Semi

The Tesla Semi, announced in 2017, is an electric semi-trailer scheduled for production in 2021. By 2020, thousands of orders had already been received from prestigious brands.

They would have a range of 480 to 800 km (!!!) and cost between $150,000 and $200,000. It would also save on fuel, going from $1.51 per mile for a diesel truck to $0.85 for the Tesla Semi.

Tesla Cybertruck

The Tesla Cybertruck is a pickup-type off-road utility vehicle scheduled for production from 2021. It is said to have an EPA range of between 400 and 800 km, and a price tag of between $40,000 and $70,000.

File:Tesla Cybertruck outside unveil modB.jpg
Tesla cybertruck. Credit: Wikipedia

Further information

TheWikipedia article is very, very rich. It also refers you to very detailed pages on the different models.

Renault was founded in 1898and, together with its allies Nissan and Mitsubishi, forms the world’s leading automotive group. It is a major player in electric and hydrogen mobility.


In this article, we present

  • Renault’s history (in brief)
  • Renault battery electric vehicles
  • Renault hydrogen electric vehicles

(Brief) history of Renault

Birth

The Renault company was founded in 1898 by three brothers, Louis, Marcel and Fernand Renault, initially under the name “Renault Frères”. Initially targeting a wealthy clientele, they moved into cabs, with an initial order for 250 vehicles in 1905.

Voiturette Renault de 1901
Renault small car from 1901

The company also took part in motor racing, with the brothers (Marcel and Louis) going so far as to drive their vehicles themselves. Their successes (Marcel won the Paris-Vienne race in 1902) accelerated the company’s development.

However, Marcel was killed in a race in 1903, prompting Louis to stop racing. In 1906, Fernand retires from the company for health reasons. In 1908, Louis bought out his brothers’ shares and renamed the company Renault.

Renault and the world wars

In 1914, the company diversified, producing munitions and military aircraft. In 1917, they even developed the iconic Renault FT, said to have been“the most effective tracked armored fighting vehicle of the First World War“.

File:A French World War I Renault FT-17 tank, ditching.jpg
Renault FT

In 1922, the company opened up its capital and became a Société Anonyme.

The company then moved into agricultural and industrial machinery.

By 1928, Renault was producing 45,809 cars a year.

With the outbreak of the Second World War and the Occupation, the Renault factories were seized by the German authorities, and Prince Von Urach was put in charge. The plants were bombed by the Allies on March 3, 1942 and again in September 1943.

In August 1944, the factories were liberated, but Louis Renault was imprisoned on charges of collaboration. Ill at the time of his imprisonment, he died a month later in Fresnes prison. He was 67 years old.

The company was nationalized in 1945, becoming the “Régie Nationale des Usines Renault” with Pierre Lefaucheux at its head.

A nationalized company

Renault developed the 4CV in 1947, which was one of the first popular cars in France and a symbol of the country’s post-war modernization. It scored a number of successes in motor racing.

More than a million units were produced when it ceased production in 1961, and it was replaced by the Dauphine, of which more than 2 million were built.

In 1984, the Régie was“on the brink of the abyss“, with a deficit of 12.5 billion francs. The chairman was dismissed and replaced by Georges Besse, who was assassinated on November 17, 1986 by anAction Directe commando.

The carmaker was privatized in 1990 and floated on the stock market in 1994.

News

Well-known models include Twingo, Clio, Mégane, Scénic, Espace and Kangoo. Renault is France’s biggest carmaker.

Renault and Nissan took major stakes in each other’s capital in 1999. It also took control (51%) of Dacia on July 2, 1999 for $50 million. In 2001, Renault swapped 21.6% of Volvo for 100% of Renault Trucks (then Renault V.I.). In 2016, Nissan takes 34% of Mitsubishi. Synergies between the three companies would reach 5.7 billion euros in 2017. This is the structure of the group in 2007:

Note that it sold its shares in Volvo in 2010 and 2012. Carlos Ghosn became CEO of Renault in 2005. He will resign in 2019 following the Japanese government’s prosecution of him. For further information, the Wikipedia article on his history is extremely rich. For financial and production data, you can check out this 2018 report.

Renault electric vehicles

As of 2017, the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance is said to be the world’s leading automaker. They reportedly sold 540,623 electric vehicles between 2010 and 2018.

Their electric models are :

Renault hydrogen-powered cars

Renault is also a player in hydrogen mobility, and offers two hydrogen-powered vehicles:

Note that Renault Master vehicles are marketed by Renault Trucks, which is no longer a Renault subsidiary, but Volvo.

FAQ

Which brands does Renault own?

Renault owns the Renault, Dacia, Alpine and Mobilize brands.

What is Renault’s slogan?

Since 2015, the slogan has been“Renault – Passion for life“. This echoes the 1985 slogan (“Renault, Des Voitures à Vivre“), which was replaced by“Changeons de vie, changeons l’automobile” in 2003, with the arrival of electric vehicles.

Who runs Renault today?

Today, the Renault group is chaired by Jean-Dominique Senard (since January 24, 2019) and managed by Luca de Meo, who succeeded Carlos Ghosn on July 1, 2020.


ArcelorMittal is the world’s second-largest steel group, with annual steel production of 71.5 million tonnes in 2020. It is investing substantial resources in decarbonizing its steel production.


In this section, we will focus on the company’s plans to decarbonize its steel production. We will then briefly present the history of this global group.

Projects to decarbonize steel production

Steel production is one of the main sources of greenhouse gas emissions: around 7% of total emissions! This is due to the current process, which automatically produces large quantities of CO2. Indeed, the main current process, blast furnaces, vaporizes carbon (coke) on iron to deoxidize it, then, as the carbon mixes with the iron, the carbon is removed by oxidizing it, generating even more CO2.

ArcelorMittal’s European division is aiming for a 30% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030, and to become carbon-neutral by 2050. To achieve this, they propose two axes:

  • Carbon capture and utilization.
  • The use of hydrogen, whether injected into blast furnaces or via the DRI-EAF route.

They put all their forecasts at an increase in production costs of 30-60% for the Smart Carbon route and 50-80% for DRI. This is very well presented in their document “Climate Action in Europe”. (5)

The manufacturer is already using other, more secondary solutions:

  • Reusing steelworks slag to produce cement
  • Replacing coke with biochar
  • Heat recovery.

Carbon capture and storage (CCUS)

One way of decarbonizing steel mills would obviously be to capture and use/store carbon. ArcelorMittal calls this pist “Smart Carbon”. At its Steelanol unit in Ghent (Belgium), the company has been working with Lanzatech on the possibility of biologically transforming carbon from gases into bioethanol or other raw materials. This is the Carbalyst project, which represented an investment of €180 million, to design the industrial prototype. It is expected to reduce the plant’s emissions by 125,000 tonnes of CO2 and produce 80 million liters of bioethanol. (5) However, production is due to start at the end of 2022. (7)

Based on this model, the CarbHflex project in Fos-Sur-Mer was announced on November 3, 2020. (7)

The IGAR project, to produce syngas from CO2, is another example.

Hydrogen to decarbonize iron reduction

Like carbon, hydrogen is a reducing gas, which means it can be used to extract the oxygen present in iron in its natural state (hematite Fe2O3). It can therefore replace coke in this role. There are two ways of using it for this purpose: either by injecting it into the conventional process (blast furnaces), or by using the DRI-EAF track.

We take a closer look at this subject in our article on decarbonizing power generation with hydrogen.

Hydrogen injection into blast furnaces

The simplest solution is undoubtedly to inject hydrogen into blast furnaces. This reduces the need for coke. This is the principle behind the Igar project at Dabrowka Gornicza and Dunkirk.

Coke oven gases, which are very rich in hydrogen, would be ideal for this purpose. A project in Spain (Asturias) is scheduled to start in 2021. (4) Projects of this type are reportedly underway in Ensenhüttenstadt and Bremen.

DRI-EAF: totally carbon-free iron reduction

By applying hydrogen to hematite, oxygen is extracted and pure iron is produced by “direct iron reduction”. It is then melted in an electric arc furnace. This is the DRI-EAF (Direct Reduced Iron – Electric Arc Furnace) route.

Note that DRI is not necessarily done with hydrogen. The most popular method at present is to use methane, and the manufacturer admits that “initially, the DRI installation would use natural gas”. However, it is developing the possibility of using hydrogen at its Hamburg facility.

Similar projects are planned for Dabrowka Gornicza, Hamburg, Bremen, Ghent, Dunkirk, Avilés (ES) and Fos-Sur-Mer.

On February 3, 2022, ArcellorMittal announced an investment of 1.7 billion euros for a DRI-EAF unit

Reuse of steelworks slag (cement, public works, etc.)

Steelworks slag is traditionally used in the composition of cement, in addition to its main component (which is highly polluting to produce), clinker. ArcelorMittal set up a joint venture with Ecocem Materials in 2007: Ecocem France. Ecocem France would valorize blast-furnace slag (in particular?) in the form of a cement using less clinker and with a carbon footprint “34 times smaller than that of conventional cement”(ArcelorMittal)

We take a closer look at the cement issue in our article on decarbonizing cement with hydrogen.

Replacing coke with biochar

ArcelorMittal has launched the Torero project in Ghent to replace coke with wood transformed into biochar.

Heat recovery

The Florange site would use “the heat present in the fumes to heat the air that will serve as oxidizer for the gas consumed in the furnaces”. (2)

Plant heat can also be recovered to heat nearby towns. This is the case for the Dunkirk plant (which has been doing this since 1982, saving 450,000 tonnes of CO2 (per year?)) and the Saint-Chély d’Apcher plant. It was announced at Florange for 2018, but I don’t know where it stands. At Dunkirk, it is also used to generate electricity. This would represent 200MW of electricity every year. (2)

A brief history of ArcelorMittal

The rise of Mittal Steel

First established in 1976 as a subsidiary of one of the companies in the Indian steel group Ispat Industries (created by Lakshmi Mittal’s father) under the name ISPAT International, the company broke away from this link in 1995.

The company’s main growth lever was to buy out ailing steel companies (1), modernizing their operations. In particular, it bought Irish Steel from the British government for £1 in exchange for a commitment to inject £25 million, with an additional subsidy of £38.2 million.(source)

By merging with LNM Holdings in 2004, ISPAT International became Mittal Steel. It was already the world’s leading steel producer in 2005, with annual steel production of 57 million tonnes.

Arcelor, a former steel giant

The history of Arcelor goes back to the Luxembourg company Aciéries Réunies de Burbach-Eich-Dudelange (ARBED SA), formed in 1911 by the merger of several companies, whose origins date back to the 19th century (1838 for Les Forges d’Eich, Le Gallais, Metz et Cie; 1856 for Société Anonyme des Mines du Luxembourg et Forges de Sarrebruck and 1882 for Société Anonyme des Hauts Fourneaux et Forges de Dudelange). Almost a century later, in 2001, the company merged with Aceralia and Usinor to form Arcelor. In 2005, it produced 42.8 million tonnes of steel a year. It was the world’s second-largest steel producer.

The takeover bid for Arcelor, the birth of ArcelorMittal

Mittal Steel launched its takeover bid on January 27, 2006. Initially rejecting the takeover offer, Arcelor’s management accepted the 44% acquisition on June 25, 2006. The two companies merged in two stages, becoming ArcelorMittal in 2007.

Nevertheless, the group suffered setbacks and by 2020 was producing just 71.5 million tonnes, behind China’s Baowu. Profitability, however, seems to have improved significantly. They plan “to reduce its CO2 emissions intensity by 25% by 2030 compared with 2018 – and by 35% in Europe”.(Figaro)

FAQ

What is ArcelorMittal’s core business?

ArcelorMittal is the world’s leading steel and mining group. Because of the environmental challenges of its business and its strategic nature, it is heavily involved in innovation through its XCarb innovation investment fund.

Which companies formed the Arcelor group?

Arcelor was itself the result of the merger of three European steel companies: Aceralia, Arbed and Usinor. In 2006, it was absorbed by Mittal Steel Company and became ArcelorMittal

Who are ArcelorMittal’s main shareholders?

Lakshmi Mittal owns 33.8% of the company. Next in line are funds such as BlackRock (3.46%), Central Bank of Norway (1.98%), The Vanguard Group (1.75%) and Crédit Agricole (1.3%).


Sources:

  1. History of Arcelor Mittal, https://www.steelonthenet.com/kb/history-arcelor-mittal.html
  2. Circular economy, https://france.arcelormittal.com/developpement-durable/economie-circulaire.aspx
  3. ArcelorMittal, https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/ArcelorMittal
  4. “ArcelorMittal Europe to produce green steel from 2020, https://france.arcelormittal.com/news/2020/oct/arcelormittal-europe-produira-de-iacier-vert-a-partir-de-2020.aspx
  5. Climate Action in Europe, 2020, https://corporate.arcelormittal.com/sustainability/climate-action-in-europe
  6. https://corporate.arcelormittal.com/climate-action/decarbonisation-technologies/carbalyst-capturing-and-re-using-our-carbon-rich-waste-gases-to-make-valuable-chemical-products
  7. https://www.fo-arcelormittal-fos.fr/blog/c/0/i/51149720/fos-sur-mer-arcelormittal-mediterranee-se-lance-dans-l-acier-vert