As a result of the outbreak of the price of energy, part of the production of the Ascoval electric steel mill could be relocated to more polluting German stoves.
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How to reconcile the French ambitions of a decarbonated industry with reality? A few days after the closing of COP26 in Glasgow, the announcement of a possible temporary offshoring of a portion of the production of “decarbon” steel of the Northern Electric steel mill Saarstahl ASCOVAL to another polluting plant in the group, In Germany, operating from high coal stoves and minerals, is a sacred nose foot to the fight against global warming.
Consequence of the outbreak of the energy price, the Ascoval electric steel mill saw the ton of its “green” steel pass from 200 euros to 300 euros and thus produced at loss since September. In a brief email, shs-saarstahl, the new German owner of the site since August, explains: “ASCOVAL is a strategic asset to allow us to produce green steel. Unfortunately, the current market situation is unexpected, disruptive and, We hope, short-lived. “The St. Saulve factory’s order book is always full but customers are reluctant to reflect on their bills the 30% increase in the cost of steel.
“We walk on the head”
Among the SHS-Saarstahl solutions studies the possibility of producing about 40% (7,000 to 9,000 tonnes) of its monthly production of small format rails on its German site. The Saint-Saulve plant would close the last week of December as well as a week per month until the end of March, the time that the price of electricity returns to an acceptable level. “It is hallucinating, denounces the trade union delegate CGT Nacim Bardi. We were in full activity, we had gone to four teams, we have just recruited about thirty people, and there, we will see some of our production being realized In Germany because electricity costs too expensive! We walk on the head. “
The 300 workers of ASCOVAL fear that the provisional does not become sustainable. “We are despite, sighs Nacim Bardi. Customers like SNCF wanted” green “rails and we will provide them with” black “rail.” To honor orders, leaders will have to decide in the coming days, before the CSE. November 29, if they relocate temporarily or if they continue to produce at the loss on the ASCOVAL website. Since this announcement on 16 November, many elected representatives of the Hauts-de-France are mounted in the niche to ask the state to intervene, in particular for the government to propose preferential rates of electricity.
On the firm of the delegated minister in charge of the industry, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, we announce that AscoVal will change electricity supplier the 1 January 2022 and go to EDF , which will guarantee a more stable contract. The SNCF, ASCOVAL’s main customer, will also have to agree to review his contract since the price of its rails has not been indexed to the current increases. However, the cost of electricity and scrap is currently up to Europe.