Arcelor demands electricity prices as in France and Germany in order not to shut down power plants in Spain

The warning appears to be included in ArcelorMittal’s analysis of the situation and challenges of the steel industry in Spain, which it has included in its sustainability report for 2021. The increase in production costs resulting from the new system for assigning rights for non-Community imports, exorbitant raw material prices or CO2 emissions, “a profound effect on vitality Add to this the weakness of the auto market, which has shrunk in demand due to the crisis in semiconductors and thus production, and the challenges of decarbonisation.

The company adds that while it is true that steel demand in Spain recovered slightly more than 12% in 2021, the steel industry continues to hover at levels below the outbreak of the coronavirus health crisis. In addition, he underlines that the first signs of recovery are now over. serious impacts on steel production and demand In the short term it stemmed from the war in Ukraine and the industry remains highly conditioned by the evolution of the automobile industry and the revitalization of construction.

energy price

ArcelorMittal points out that the effects of war have exacerbated the problem of “high” energy costs. The company confirms that the Electrointensive Consumer Regulation approved by the Spanish Government “does not guarantee stability, security or certainty about the energy price, the primary mission from which it was born in December 2020” and is the result.nor in favor of competition Attracting companies or industrial investments like ArcelorMittal”.

“The reality is very different” because the rise in gas, oil and CO2 emission rights prices from the second half of 2021 led to an energy crisis, aggravated by the armed conflict in Ukraine at the beginning of 2022. “With prices close to 550 euros per megawatt hour, the shutdown of industrial plants is inevitable and in the best case, this is still a step before the implementation of the employment regulation files (ERTE)”, warns ArcelorMittal management. Spain, which already implemented a halt last March at workshops in Asturias due to the price of electricity coinciding with the stoppage of activity due to the effects of the transport strike.

In addition, the company has already communicated to workers’ representatives that it plans to negotiate an ERTE for the withdrawal of all of the company’s staff when it needs to be done. temporary adjustments for productive reasons. A file similar to the one that existed until last December, which was not renewed due to disagreements with some of the union organizations represented in the company.

electro-intensive

ArcelorMittal points out that the steel industry, like many others, is part of an electro-intensive sector in Spain that “has to deal with the disproportionateness of operating costs caused by exorbitant electricity prices”, which has been greatly affected by the rise. in the cost of gas and oil. “Therefore we have spent years demanding that the Spanish Government adopt a set of laws. measures that contribute to equating our final costs with those of other European manufacturersin order to compete on an equal footing”, the company underlines in its analysis. These measures include an increase in the compensation of indirect CO2 costs, an increase in the contribution of renewable energy sources to the energy mix or the reform of the marginal electricity market, at least separating the price of fossil fuels from the price of electricity in the market while the energy crisis continues. .

“Competitors in countries such as France, where there is a special energy plan for the electro-intensive industry, benefit from a stable and predictable electricity price and some of their costs are insured,” adds ArcerlorMittal’s management in Spain. “In Germany, to take a second close example, large electricity consuming companies benefit from a regulated cost exemption system”. This, he adds, ” support mechanisms for the industrial sector enabling to perpetuate competitive and advantageous positioningthe current antithesis of the steel industry” in Spain.

As published by La Nueva España, the company also underlines that electricity prices could make decarbonization investments “impossible”, as the electric arc furnace and pre-reduced iron ore plant (DRI) and electric arc furnace planned for the Gijón plant will consume ten times more electricity. .