Environment Hamilton staff attended the May 20th ArcelorMittal Dofasco Community Liaison Committee Meeting. We were able to ask questions about ArcelorMittal's 2025 Sustainability Report that it published on April 22. Steelwatch published an extensive assessment of the sustainability report which you can find at the link here.

For those who don't know, Dofasco was bought by Arcelor in 2006, just months before a merger between the Arcelor and Mittal steel companies. It has been part of the ArcelorMittal global network of steel facilities since that time.

Here are some of the things we learned at the May 20th meeting:

• In the sustainability report, ArcelorMittal writes that it will sequence decarbonization projects (i.e. it will only undertake one decarbonization project at a time). Dofasco confirmed that ArcelorMittal is sequencing decarbonization projects, but also said there will still be openings to bring forward proposals to the global group for approval. Our take is that Dofasco can bring forward proposals in theory, but seems unlikely in practice that anything will get support from ArcelorMittal. ArcelorMittal has committed to support a decarbonization project in Dunkirk, France which means there is little interest for the company to begin the Hamilton coal-phase out that was announced in 2021.
• The meeting chair (VP of Business Integration and Transition Management, and VP of Decarbonization) also stated that she believes the 10% emissions intensity reduction target for the ArcelorMittal group of facilities by 2030 is "more realistic." Previously the target was a 25% reduction.

While these notes are disappointing, it does not change our work to a large extent. We were already anticipating that advocacy efforts to push ArcelorMittal Dofasco to fulfill its announced coal phase-out project would be met with a wall of corporate disinterest. This information confirms our assumptions.

Other notes:

• Dofasco representatives confirmed that they are purchasing coke from elsewhere to replace the lost capacity from the coke plant that began decommissioning on April 13.
• Dofasco representatives stated that more than 50% of their current steel production comes from their Electric Arc Furnace (EAF). We know the facility's max production capacity is 1.6 million tonnes from EAF and 3.1 million tonnes from Blast Furnaces (BF), so the plant must be near the max of its EAF production and around half of its BF limit.
  • We have known for a while that one of three BF's are not in operation, but this statement seems to mean the other two are also not producing at full capacity. This is interesting, as even at this production rate Dofasco is the largest industrial source of carbon emissions in Ontario.
• Lastly, comments from Dofasco representatives gave reassurance that a blast furnace relining is not planned at the facility and that only smaller blast furnace maintenance projects are planned.
  • This is reassuring, as a complete relining can cost hundreds of millions of dollars and would commit Dofasco to fossil fuel steelmaking for the foreseeable future.