ArcelorMittal brands recycled-content steel as XCarb

Luxembourg-based steel producer ArcelorMittal has announced the launch of a product line and set of initiatives attached to the brand XCarb. The company says three initial steps attached to the XCarb effort are “part of the company’s journey to deliver on its 2050 net-zero [emissions] commitment.”

Among the initial XCarb programs are what the steelmaker calls XCarb recycled and renewably produced products for customers. The other two announced XCarb programs involve an “innovation fund” and XCarb “green steel certificates,” which ArcelorMittal says “will enable us to support our customers as they seek to reduce their Scope 3 emissions.”

The company says XCarb ultimately will “bring together all of ArcelorMittal’s reduced, low and zero-carbon products and steelmaking activities, as well as wider initiatives and green innovation projects, into a single effort focused on achieving demonstrable progress toward carbon-neutral steel.”

Aditya Mittal, CEO of ArcelorMittal, states, “Climate change is an overwhelming societal priority. At ArcelorMittal, we have an important role to play in helping society deliver the objectives of the Paris Agreement and are determined to lead our industry’s transition to carbon-neutral steel.”

Regarding the XCarb recycled and renewably produced steel product line, the company says the label will be applied to “products made via the electric arc furnace (EA’) route using scrap steel. Recycled and renewably produced means that the physical steel was made with recycled material (scrap) using renewable electricity, giving it an extremely low CO₂ footprint that can be as low as approximately 300 kilograms (661 pounds) of CO₂ per metric ton of finished steel when the metallics are 100 percent scrap.”

In North America, ArcelorMittal in 2020 sold its basic oxygen furnace (BOF) steel mills in the United States to Ohio-based Cleveland-Cliffs while retaining some of its EAF assets. It also announced it is investing in new EAF capacity in Alabama.