Service Center Gelsenkirchen third CO2 neutral location Tata Steel Netherlands

The location in Gelsenkirchen, Germany is part of Tata Steel Netherlands’ Downstream activities and is the steel manufacturer’s third European location to achieve CO2 neutrality in its production. This follows in the footsteps of Tata Steel’s service centers in Ngaatli, Finland, and Halmstad, Sweden.

Advanced and high strength steels

In Service Center Gelsenkirchen, approximately 130 employees process advanced and high-strength steels. This steel mainly comes from Tata Steel in IJmuiden and is used by customers in the automotive, white goods and construction sectors, among others. In a modern production facility in Gelsenkirchen, they cut rolls of steel into strips and plates of different sizes, making it easier for customers to produce pressed parts, profiles and tubes, for example.

Route to CO2 neutral location

“Our journey to carbon neutrality began in 2022 when an interdisciplinary team examined our carbon emissions to identify potential savings,” said Carlos Alván Peña, Managing Director of the Service Center Gelsenkirchen. Initially, the service center switched to CO2-neutral liquid gas and then exclusively used CO2-neutral propellant. Together with purchasing colleagues in IJmuiden, Gelsenkirchen has ensured that only sustainable energy is now purchased from a regional energy supplier.

Great potential

The CO2 neutrality that Gelsenkirchen has achieved is in line with Tata Steel Netherlands’ goal of being completely CO2 neutral by 2045. “In addition to major projects, such as the transformation to green steel production in IJmuiden, we are also working in other areas to make our company more sustainable,” says Gunilla Saltin, member of the Board of Directors of Tata Steel Netherlands and Managing Director of the Downstream activities from the company. “Our commitment to sustainability in our downstream supply chain has great potential and it is great to see that our colleagues in Gelsenkirchen have taken a big step in this direction. We are working hard to ensure that the other Downstream locations also become CO2 neutral.”

Focus on improved circularity

In the future, Service Center Gelsenkirchen will focus more on improving circularity, energy independence, waste reduction and lower paper consumption. For example, charging stations for electric vehicles were installed in March and the company is working on the further introduction of Zeremis Delivered, the environmentally friendly delivery service launched by Tata Steel Netherlands in November 2023. This allows customers to reduce their scope 3 emissions and other emissions associated with the transportation of steel. Currently, Zeremis Delivered is available to customers within 300 kilometers of Tata Steel locations in the Netherlands and Belgium, including customers in Germany within that distance. The Service Center Gelsenkirchen is also investigating whether it can help its suppliers to use trucks that run on fossil-free energy.