ArcelorMittal France is preparing to launch a new electrical steels production line in Mardyck – the largest ArcelorMittal investment in Europe in the past 10 years.
The first three lines of ArcelorMittal France’s new electrical steel production unit, located at ArcelorMittal France’s industrial site in Mardyck, near Dunkirk, will be operational by the end of 2025. This new production line represents the group’s largest investment in Europe in the past decade.
Electrical steels are ultra-thin rolled steels treated to give them specific magnetic and mechanical properties. They are an essential component in all types of electric motors.
With this new unit, which complements the electrical steels existing facility at ArcelorMittal’s Saint-Chély-d’Apcher site in France, ArcelorMittal is expanding its European offering in electrical steels to support the electrification of applications, particularly in the automotive, energy and wider industrial sectors.
ArcelorMittal invests for the future at its Mardyck site
By 2027, five new production lines will be operational at the site. While civil engineering work is underway for phase 2 of the project (annealing-pickling line and reversible rolling mill), the start-up of the three phase 1 lines is imminent: the preparation line, the annealing-coating line, and the slitting line.
Bruno Ribo, CEO of ArcelorMittal France, explained: "Creating new production lines is an exceptional experience in the life of an industrial site. It is just as exceptional for our employees, who have witnessed the development of these lines from project mode to operational mode. Like them, I will feel great emotion when the first of the 155,000 tonnes of electrical steel we will ultimately deliver each year comes off the lines."
This US$500m investment is the largest made by ArcelorMittal in Europe in the past 10 years. It is a strategic project for ArcelorMittal Europe – Flat Products, expanding its electrical steel offering to support the development of electric motors for the industrial and automotive markets.
With this new production unit, complementing the Saint-Chély-d’Apcher site, ArcelorMittal’s electrical steel production capacity in Europe will reach 295,000 tonnes per year. All of ArcelorMittal’s electrical steels in Europe will be produced in France, strengthening the French ecosystem around electromobility and the energy transition.
The new lines are integrated into the heart of the Dunkirk area and the Hauts-de-France region, which aims to build a strong and ambitious sector around electromobility.
A new production line managed by a dedicated team
Up to 400 people have contributed to the development of the project, including the construction of the lines and the preliminary tests required for the start-up of the first three lines.
Today, 175 people work in the electrical steel unit at the Mardyck and Dunkirk industrial sites: operating and maintaining the installations or supporting the essential needs of the new unit in departments such as quality and products, energy, and digital transformation.
After developing operating modes, processes, and human-machine interfaces, 175 employees are preparing to operate the lines in the coming weeks.
Once Phase 2 of the project is delivered, the electrical steel unit will employ 200 people in total.
The new lines are managed by Gaëlle Le Papillon, department head, who said: "This is an enormous challenge, both technological and human: we are commissioning a complete production line that is becoming an industrial reality. To build the new teams, we relied on existing skills within ArcelorMittal France and also recruited externally. All employees have been trained in our processes and safety culture. In total, more than 12,000 hours of training have been provided to teams, on the Mardyck site lines or at Saint-Chély-d’Apcher".
The construction of the first Phase 1 lines, involving the rehabilitation of old industrial halls and the building of new infrastructure, is now complete. More than 300 external companies contributed to the project. The work was carried out under the highest safety conditions.
Start-up is imminent, enabling the delivery high-quality products that meet customers’ new challenges.
This investment by ArcelorMittal has been supported by €25 million from the French State under the France 2030 programme.
What are electrical steels used for?
Used in motors as stacks of very thin layers (0.2 to 0.35 millimeters in automotive applications), they are characterized by their magnetic and mechanical properties:
- high polarization to maximize motor performance,
- low losses to improve vehicle autonomy,
- and high yield strength to ensure mechanical resistance to motor rotation, to ensure a long service life for equipment (for example, in wind turbines).
More information
About our mill in Mardyck
About our Electrical steels
Find out how our electrical steels power data centers and the AI boom
Copyright pictures: ArcelorMittal & HappyDay
