ArcelorMittal acquires scrap yards in Germany

ArcelorMittal, a Luxembourg-based steelmaker, has announced the acquisition of 10 scrap recycling facilities from the Alba International Recycling business unit of the Berlin-based Alba Group.

According to the steel producer, the deal involves 10 scrap yards in southern Germany that had been branded in three different ways: Alba Metall Süd Rhein-Main, Alba Metall Süd and Alba Electronics Recycling.

The locations jointly process approximately 400,000 metric tons of material annually, “the majority of which is steel scrap,” ArcelorMittal says.

“Increasing the use of scrap in our steelmaking operations and securing access to the metallics required for low-carbon steelmaking is one component of our plans to reduce our CO₂ emissions intensity by 35 per cent by 2030,” says Geert Van Poelvoorde, ArcelorMittal Europe CEO.

He continues, “I am therefore very pleased to welcome the management teams and employees of all three companies to ArcelorMittal. The management teams will stay in place and we look forward to working closely with our new colleagues to utilize their market knowledge and expertise to enable Alba to capture the strong growth potential which resides in their business, and support our ambition to lead our industry’s efforts to decarbonize.”

It is the second scrap metal acquisition ArcelorMittal has made this year in Europe. It follows the March acquisition of United Kingdom-based John Lawrie Metals Ltd., which ArcelorMittal describes as “a leading consolidator of ferrous scrap metal based in Scotland.”

In North America, the steelmaker now operates a scrap-fed electric arc furnace (EAF) mill in Alabama and is preparing to switch from blast furnace/basic oxygen furnace production in Canada to EAF technology.

To supply metallics to the Calvert mill, the company purchased a direct reduced iron (DRI) production plant in Texas in April. It has not disclosed any scrap-related transactions in either the United States or Canada.