From Argentina to Luxembourg: Santiago’s sustainability journey

As a student of chemical engineering in Argentina, Santiago Actis Caporale was always intrigued by the science that fuels the steel industry.

In his final year of study, Santiago visited the ArcelorMittal Acindar plant, a short drive away from his home city of Rosario in Central Argentina. Whilst the sheer scale of the plant’s operations left a lasting impression, the highlight was discovering DRI-EAF (Direct Reduced Iron-Electric Arc Furnace) technology which forms the basis of producing zero-carbon emissions steel and sparked Santiago’s curiosity.

Santiago went on to successfully apply for a trainee program with ArcelorMittal that enabled him to gain valuable experience whilst finishing his engineering studies, and then even before graduation was offered a full-time job as a process engineer in the DRI plant at ArcelorMittal Acindar.

“This is a fundamental change in the steel industry and it’s taking a completely new direction. It’s changing the whole industry and the way we produce steel today”

Fast-forward to 2023, Santiago was invited to join the decarbonisation team in ArcelorMittal HQ in Luxembourg. Here he was able to combine his sustainability knowledge and scientific education allowing him to experience first-hand the magnitude of the decarbonisation investment.

“As a worldwide company, ArcelorMittal has advantages that could help us take the role to lead decarbonisation - we have the plants, we have the knowledge, we have the experience. We have people coming from all over the world, from Brazil, South America, Europe, Canada, India, so we can build the best team, with the most knowledge, that is equipped to build a plant that will be a benchmark and a first-of-its-kind in the industry.”

As part of his growing responsibility, Santiago has been contributing to the creation of a new knowledge bank, that connects grassroot expertise from plants worldwide with the global research and development and chief technology office, to help accelerate knowledge sharing, innovation and retain ArcelorMittal’s status and reputation in the decarbonisation space.

Throughout his career at ArcelorMittal Santiago has experienced support, opportunity, and a culture where employees have autonomy and are encouraged to decide what they want to do and to shape their own careers.

Looking ahead, Santiago hopes to adopt a managerial role in a plant where he is able to continue to actively contribute to ArcelorMittal’s decarbonisation efforts at both plant and organization level.

Watch this video to learn more about our innovative DRI route: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRpeKLnimng

To learn more about our efforts in producing carbon-neutral steel: https://corporate.arcelormittal.com/climate-action