Steel recycling is an essential premise for all companies in the sector to fight for the circular economy, an increasingly important trend in the fight against climate change. In the case of CELSA Group, all the steel contained in the products manufactured by the company is fully recyclable.
Currently, CELSA Group recovers about 80,000 tons per year of non-ferrous material and 432 tons of plastics, ensuring the valorization of 1.37 million tons per year of co-products.
The use of electric arc furnaces, which constitutes one of the differentiating points of CELSA Group compared to its competitors, allows 9 times less CO2 to be released into the atmosphere than traditional blast furnace systems. Through this technology, the company produces its steel avoiding the extraction and consumption of 11 million m3 of natural resources, the equivalent of more than ten times the volume of the Empire State Building.
CELSA Group is one of Europe’s leading companies in the manufacturing of circular and low-emission steel and confirms its position as a pioneering business group in the European circular economy. The company is on the verge of achieving its sustainability goals set for 2050; currently, 97% of the final product manufactured at its plants is made from recycled steel, bringing it close to the goal of becoming Net Positive and achieving total circularity by the middle of the century. The Group aims to give infinite life to finite resources, a significant milestone achieved daily and now coinciding with a record-breaking year for turnover, reaching 6.109 billion euros.
Currently, all the steel used in the company’s products is entirely recyclable. CELSA Group’s circular production system also allows for a recovery rate of 95.1% for production process waste.
This steel production model also prevented the emission of 10 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere in 2022, equivalent to the pollution from 2.2 million cars driving continuously for an entire year.
Positive figures also attest to CELSA Group’s efficiency in water and electricity consumption. In terms of water resources, using scrap instead of iron ore initially reduces water consumption by 40%. Additionally, 16% of the water received by CELSA Group is reused in the processes. Furthermore, the consumption of electricity from renewable sources has increased eightfold, reaching 185,555 MWh, by purchasing origin guarantees, thereby reducing non-renewable electricity consumption by 21%.
The group will achieve circularity and complete decarbonisation by 2050.
CELSA Group is currently the largest circular supply chain in Europe, significantly contributing to greater industrial raw material autonomy in Spain and across the continent. The company’s roadmap is shaped by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the initiatives outlined in the Green Deal, aiming to lead the European Union towards ecological transition and achieve climate neutrality by 2050.
CELSA Group has set the year 2030 to achieve a 50% reduction in scope 1 and 2 CO2 emissions and a 25% reduction in scope 3 emissions compared to 2021, with the goal of becoming a Net Positive company by 2050. Additionally, the Group aims to be 98% circular by 2030 and complete the process to become a Zero Waste company by 2050.
Key circularity and sustainability indicators for CELSA Group:
• 97% of CELSA Group’s final product is made from recycled steel.
• The steel in all products manufactured by CELSA Group is recyclable.
• 95.1% of the group’s total waste has been recovered.
• Manufacturing steel with scrap instead of iron ore reduces water consumption by around 40%.
•
o Recycled Scrap: 5.7 MT
o Recovered Co-products: 1.4 MT
o Recovered Non-Ferrous Metals: 80,260 tons
o Recovered Plastics: 432 tons
o Water Consumption: 4.9 million m3
o Water Reused (%): 16%
o Energy Consumption: 5,965,554 MWh
o CO2 Emissions (scope 1 and 2, market-based): 1,719,407,263 tons
o CO2 Emissions, steel produced CO2-eq:
Scope 1: 677,791 tons CO2-eq
Scope 2 location-based: 924,315 tons CO2-eq
Structure
It is headquartered in Castellbisbal in Spain. It is composed of eight main steel companies, across Europe.
Celsa Steel UK is in Cardiff, and is the UK's largest manufacturer of steel reinforcement products. In November 2015, two people died at its Cardiff manufacturing site on East Moors Road.[1]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK government provided Celsa Steel UK with a £30 million bailout to help it continue trading providing it met a set of conditions.[2] This made it the first company to receive a loan through the government's financial support scheme known as Project Birch.[3]
Since 2010, the plant has used GB Railfreight for freight services.[4] This includes both incoming supply of scrap steel, outgoing finished products, as well as on-site shunting services using remotely-controlled British Rail Class 08 locomotives, supplemented by sub-contract locomotive supply from Harry Needle Railroad Company.
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