New electrical steels line at Mardyck marks next step in delivering innovative energy transition solutions

On March 26, the electrical steels teams at Mardyck, Dunkirk, produced the first industrial coil on our new production lines there. This is the culmination of several years of planning and, at a cost of $500 million, is ArcelorMittal’s largest investment in Europe in the past 10 years, excluding our investments in decarbonisation – aimed at building our ‘next-generation’ offering of innovative electrical steels for the fast-developing mobility and energy transition markets.

ArcelorMittal’s non-grain-oriented electrical steels (NGOES), also known as non-oriented electrical steels (NOES) are key elements for electric vehicles and generators for data centres and renewable energy.

One of the new production lines at Mardyck in action. The investment will triple our electrical steel production capacity in Europe to 295,000 tonnes.

The Mardyck site, together with the existing production unit in Saint‑Chély‑d’Apcher, in southern France, will take ArcelorMittal’s electrical steels capacity in Europe to 295,000 tonnes per year – a threefold increase. Supplied by its upstream Dunkirk and Fos-sur-Mer steel plants, this makes ArcelorMittal the only EU steelmaker with the capacity and supply security of two primary and two finishing plants.

Up to 400 people and 300 suppliers contributed to the development of the project, the construction of the new lines in Mardyck, and the preliminary tests required to produce a first coil on the first three lines of the new production chain: the preparation line, the annealing and coating line, and the slitting line.

With the first coil - over 17 tonnes and nearly 4 kilometres long - the new production line has entered a decisive phase. This production milestone will allow the teams to finetune, adjust and refine industrial tools and processes to enable a steady ramp-up, leading to validation of all the lines and products to reach full operational capacity.

The ramp‑up of a new industrial project requires strong commitment and the highest standards in terms of safety, quality, and reliability, as highlighted by Bruno Ribo, CEO of ArcelorMittal France:

“I am grateful for the enormous, combined effort and commitment of the teams involved in bringing the new lines on-stream at Mardyck. I know how much energy and skill has been required to reach this major milestone. I would like to thank all the teams involved, as well as our partners. We are now focused on steadily and safely ramping up production and delivering game-changing solutions for our customers.”

“The first coil produced at Mardyck is a strong signal of ArcelorMittal’s long‑term commitment to Europe. This investment goes well beyond capacity expansion: it is about securing European industrial leadership in electrification, energy transition and digitalisation. By investing at scale in next‑generation electrical steels, we are strengthening the European value chain, reducing dependency risks and enabling our customers to accelerate the transition towards more efficient electric mobility, renewable energy systems and data‑driven infrastructure. This project reflects our clear ambition to be a trusted, strategic partner for Europe’s sustainable and competitive future,” says Cristina de Lucas, CMO Electrical Steels ArcelorMittal Europe – Flat Products.

In tandem with the ramp-up in electrical steels production, we have launched a new dedicated, multi-disciplinary customer satisfaction team, led by Eric Vasseur, Technical & Service Director, to support our ‘next-generation’ offering of innovative solutions. This team is specifically designed to offer customers co-engineering support from ‘start to finish’ on their motor/generator product development projects – covering pre-development, design, materials approval, prototyping, pre-series configuration, and project ramp-up.

“ArcelorMittal is now unique in its combination of electric steels production capacity and supply security in Europe, together with business development support, customer technical support, service support and R&D product teams. Our team can help and co-engineer with customers at every stage in their project,” commented Eric Vasseur, Technical & Service Director, ArcelorMittal Europe – Flat Products.