Steel for New Lock comes from 'own kitchen'

ArcelorMittal Projects delivers steel in Terneuzen for 5 years

In a major project such as the construction of the New Lock Terneuzen, large quantities of steel are processed. ArcelorMittal Projectwas awarded the contract to supply the steel needed for the foundation work for 5 years. We speak with Patrick Mulders, Technical Sales Engineer at ArcelorMittal.

Customized foundation solutions

The department within ArcelorMittal Projects for which Patrick works is called Foundation Solutions. The department offers customized foundation solutions within civil engineering, providing general support to large projects in all steps of the process: from design support, to transportation of products to the project site and support during installation. "The steel we supply is for a variety of applications; think combi walls and sheet piling for quays, bulkheads and mooring facilities," Patrick opens the conversation. "The special thing about project New Lock Terneuzen is that this contract runs for 5 years. We already started delivery in 2018. A range of pipes were deployed that we had in stock so we could deliver quickly. The pipes for later deliveries were produced new in our factory in Heijningen (municipality of Moerdijk)."

"In Heijningen, we make steel tubes from hot-rolled coils, which come from our plant in Bremen. We transform the coil into spiral-welded pipe. The hot-rolled sheet piles come from our own rolling mills in Luxembourg. By producing everything locally, transport distances remain small. The sheet piles are also produced entirely from recycled steel and made using an electric arc furnace, in which the scrap is melted. At the front, the scrap enters the plant; at the back, the sheet piles come out. In this way we achieve a lower environmental impact across the board, and in particular a low CO2 footprint," Patrick explains.

Contributing to circularity

Production methods and short supply lines are not the only elements contributing to the reduction of CO2 emissions. For temporary applications, ArcelorMittal often supplies steel from stock, on a sell-back basis. "This is how we contribute to a piece of circularity," Patrick said. "In addition to these types of innovative solutions, ArcelorMittal's strength lies mainly in the fact that we have local branches and enormous in-house expertise in customized steel foundation solutions."

Approximately 16,000 tons of sheet piling to Terneuzen

ArcelorMittal supplied steel for the quays (several quays are combi piling, including the front walls and the service harbor) and the lock chamber (combi piling placed in cement-bentonite wall). "In total, we are talking about about 16,000 tons of sheet piling, of which 4,000 tons are based on the sell-back scheme. Furthermore, we are talking about 12,000 tons of steel pipes of varying diameters between 914 mm and 1720 mm," Patrick lists.

Innovation Solutions

Patrick: "On this project, we also applied lock detectors for the combi walls. This system contains a sensor that indicates whether the sheet piling being installed has come down completely in its lock. We are now developing this into a continuous monitoring system, so that during the entire installation you can measure whether sheet piles are still in their lock.

In addition, last year the in-house coating hall was put into operation, which we were able to use right away for this project. So all manufacturing and coating for pipes is now bundled on one production site, which means that burdensome intermediate transports can be avoided as much as possible and logistics have been optimized."