LIBERTY Steel Group ensured environmentally friendly production of rails

LIBERTY Steel Group, the French subsidiary of LIBERTY France and SNCF Reseau, have announced the safe and speedy approval of the installation of Europe's first GREENSTEEL rails on the French rail network. This significant step demonstrates SNCF Reseau's contribution to the creation of a green rail industry sector in France to fully integrate the country's rail infrastructure into a circular economy. The approval also marks the first step in achieving LIBERTY's ambitions for the recently acquired LIBERTY Ascoval and LIBERTY Rail Hayange, formerly France Rail Industry, to build GREENSTEEL's world-class rail and rail services business with international reach.

LIBERTY's key acquisition area was to link Ascoval with the Hayange railway plant to become the leader in the supply of GREENSTEEL rails. As part of this circular economy concept, LIBERTY Ascoval will melt recycled steel scrap, including recovered rail from Hayange customers, in its electric arc furnace to produce large rectangular GREENSTEEL blooms that can then be rolled onto the LIBERTY Rail Hayange.

This innovation was implemented shortly after the acquisition of LIBERTY Ascoval, when the first square billet was cast on a new modified casting line. The € 17 million modifications that were delivered on time and on budget despite the complications of COVID-19 meant that high quality steelmaking equipment at Ascoval could be deployed to produce a new range of cross-sections, including blooms and billets suitable for rolling into rails. and other steel products in new markets. With these new products and a number of new customers, Ascoval is now operating at a higher capacity with a strong prospect of more jobs in early 2021 as production expands at the plant.

The rail specialists at Hayange worked closely with the specialists from SNCF Reseau to produce the GREENSTEEL rails that will be used on the French rail network. This new manufacturing process reduces CO2 emissions by 90% compared to the traditional processes used in Europe for the production of rail steel. These environmental performances were made possible mainly by the use of the electric arc process rather than the use of traditional blast furnaces. The production of GREENSTEEL rails produces 180 kg CO2 per tonne of steel, compared to 1.8 tonnes CO2 per tonne of steel using conventional blast furnaces. The goal is to make rails fully carbon neutral by 2030 in line with the GFG Alliance's mission of achieving carbon neutrality by 2030.