The contract with a term of up to six years has a total value of over one billion euros.
Saarstahl Rail is the only rolling mill in Europe to offer CO₂-reduced rails, manufactured with the rail steel produced in the electric arc furnace of Saarstahl Ascoval – another subsidiary of Saarstahl AG based in Saint Saulve, France.
“We are extremely pleased that we were able to fully convince SNCF Réseau of our high quality and of the environmental friendliness of our products. The contract guarantees almost 1,000 direct jobs at both company locations, which will significantly strengthen the local labor markets. The partnership with SNCF Réseau also enables us to make new investments in Saint-Saulve and Hayange, allowing us to strengthen both companies and ensure they are future-ready”,
said Dr. Nadine Artelt, President of Saarstahl Rail and Saarstahl Ascoval.
Combined with Saarstahl Rail’s economic cycle concept based on recycling used rails, the optimized production process for environmentally friendly rails in the electric arc furnace cuts CO₂ emissions by up to 70 percent compared to conventional production via a blast furnace route using iron ore and coal as raw materials. Based on the SNCF Réseau contract, annual carbon emissions can be reduced by 200,000 tons. Based on a contract term of six years, this corresponds to a saving of more than one million tonnes of CO₂ emissions, which is equivalent to the amount of CO₂ that the transport sector in Germany, for example, emits on two and a half days.
“The Saarstahl Group stands for innovation and sustainability in addition to a high level of customer focus. The Berlin Institute Supply Chain Management presented Saarstahl Rail with its prestigious Sustainability Championship Award last year. This shows that our products are the building block for an environmentally friendly mobility transition in the international rail sector”,
said Stefan Rauber, Chairman of the Board of Management of Saarstahl, explaining the Group’s business policy.
Jonathan Weber, member of the Board of Management responsible for Saarstahl Rail and Saarstahl Ascoval:
“The major order from SNCF Réseau shows that we have established ourselves as a trailblazer and trustworthy partner on the market for the production of decarbonized steel. We are delighted that our products are contributing to the environmentally friendly expansion of the French rail network and that SNCF Réseau can use the products to implement its decarbonization strategy more effectively.”
(Source: Saarstahl Rail)
