what is this 1 billion euro contract signed with a company based in Moselle?

Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister of Ecological Transition, and Philippe Tabarot, Minister of Transport, were at l'usine Saarstahl Rail d’Hayange (Moselle), this Friday January 24, 2025.

A trip to participate in the signing of a carbon-free rail supply contract between Saarstahl Rail and SNCF Réseau. An order to more than a billion euros.

170,000 tonnes of carbon-free rails per year

This ten-figure contract includes the purchase of 170,000 tonnes of railsvery largely decarbonized, per year for six years with Saarstahl Rail. The objective of this order is to cover 80% of SNCF Réseau's needs on average.

In addition, this contract between SNCF Réseau and Saarstahl Rail will “allow guarantee nearly a thousand direct jobs » on the Hayange and Saint-Saulve (North) sites, according to the steel company.

Rails made in Moselle from steel recycled in the North

And for good reason, the manufacturing of carbon-free rails is starting in the North.

On the site Saarstahl Ascoval de Saint-Saulvewe proceed to steel recycling in electric arc furnaces. Steel coming from old SNCF rails or other sources. This results in “the production of bloomssteel bars with a square section,” explains SNCF Réseau.

Then the blooms are transported (mainly by rail freight) to the Saarstahl Rail site in Hayange. It is here that the rails are produced by rolling : “This process consists of heating the blooms in ovens and modifying their profile in order to gradually obtain that of a rail,” continues SNCF Réseau.

A huge saving in CO2 emissions

This process makes it possible to “reduce CO2 emissions by almost 70% compared to a conventional blast furnace process based on the use of iron ore and coal as raw materials,” develops Saarstahl Rail.

The steel company specifies: “The contract signed with SNCF Réseau will allow to save 200,000 tonnes of CO2 each year. Based on a six-year contract, this represents a saving of more than a million tonnes emissions of CO2. »

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