Dive Brief:
- ArcelorMittal North America will supply GM with recycled steel as part of a new agreement.
- Steel produced for the automaker will contain at least 70% scrap material, part of ArcelorMittal’s mission to reduce carbon emissions used in the production process, according to an announcement of the deal.
- The steelmaker's subsidiary ArcelorMittal Dofasco will supply the material from its site in Hamilton, Ontario, beginning in Q2 2023.
Dive Insight:
Like with many other commodities such as lithium, GM has been busy securing new supply agreements for its steel sourcing this year.
In February, the company signed a supply deal with U.S. Steel for its sustainable steel solution, verdeX.
Sustainable production and procurement have been key tenet of GM's steel deals.
U.S. Steel boasts that its material is made using up to 90% recycled content at its Osceola, Arkansas facility. And ArcelorMittal noted that it uses a third-party to independently verify its steel was sustainably sourced, part of its goal to cut emissions by 25% by 2030 and reach carbon neutral by 2050.
Both steel agreements are also another sign of GM's push to bring its supply chain closer to home and more under its control.
GM's EVP of Legal, Policy, Cybersecurity & Strategic Technology Initiatives Craig Glidden highlighted the ArcelorMittal deal during a recent talk at the Battery Gigafactories USA 2023 conference.
Glidden noted that the deal helps to further vertically integrate GM's supply chain by directly contracting with the supplier, a supply chain strategy he called "from rock to road," getting involved from the raw material stage to final assembly.
"We don't want to be at the end of the supply chain," Glidden said at the conference. "We want to be at the beginning of the supply chain, so we have visibility.”
