Ontario steel plant spending $1.75B to eliminate coal

Hamilton’s Dofasco plant will be among the first steelmakers to transition to production methods that don’t rely on coal.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford will join Economic Development Minister Vic Fedeli Tuesday in Hamilton to announce the $1.75-billion project, made possible via $500 million in loans and grant supports from the province, and $400 million in federal investments.

The project will be among the first plants owned by Arcelormittal — the Luxembourg-based steel producer who acquired Dofasco in 2006 — to replace their coke ovens and blast furnaces with hydrogen-ready, direct-reduced-iron-fed electric arc furnaces, a technology that emits far less carbon than traditional steelmaking.

Current steelmaking methods involve the use of coke — created by superheating coal in an airtight kiln — as both blast furnace fuel and a reducing agent to prepare iron ore for smelting.

The project will reduce carbon emissions from the plant — currently one of Ontario’s largest greenhouse gas producers — by around three million tonnes per year.

Shifting towards this “green steel” technology, said Fedeli in a news release, will make Hamilton steel an attractive product for both automakers and the manufacturing industry as a whole looking to reduce their carbon footprints.

Arcelormittal’s North American CEO John Brett said the project is part of the company’s plans to reduce their carbon emissions by 25 per cent by 2030.

“As part of that, we understand that in the coming years, the assets used to make steel will undergo a transformation on a scale not seen for many decades," he said in the news release.

Dominion Foundries and Steel opened their first Hamilton steel plant in 1912, owning many subsidiaries including manufacturing and iron mines until divested throughout the 1990s.

Dofasco employs over 4,600 workers and is Hamilton’s largest private-sector employer.