FRANCE’s infrastructure manager, SNCF Network, has awarded a contract worth more than €1bn to Saarstahl Rail, based in Hayange, France, for the supply of CO2-reduced rails. The contract will run for up to six years.
Saarstahl Rail says it is the only European rolling mill to offer CO2-reduced rails, manufactured with steel produced in an electric arc furnace at the Saarstahl Ascoval plant in Saint Saulve, France. This production process combined with Saarstahl Rail’s economic cycle concept based on recycling used rails is claimed to cut CO2 emissions by up to 70% compared with conventional production with a blast furnace using iron ore and coke as raw materials.
“Based on the SNCF Network contract, annual carbon emissions can be reduced by 200,000 tonnes,” SaarstahlRail says. “With a contract term of six years, this corresponds to a saving of more than 1 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions, which is equivalent to the amount of CO₂ that the transport sector in Germany, for example, emits in two and a half days.
“The partnership with SNCF Network also enables us to make new investments in Saint-Saulve and Hayange, allowing us to strengthen both companies and ensure they are future-ready,” says Dr Nadine Artelt, president of Saarstahl Rail and Saarstahl Ascoval. Both companies are subsidiaries of Saarstahl, Germany.
