JSW present at the Energy Congress
Jarosław Kluczniok, Vice-President of the JSW Management Board for Development, attended the 10th DISE Energy Congress held in Wrocław. The theme was the transition of the energy sector and its financing while ensuring Poland's energy security.
The conference could not miss a panel on the role of critical raw materials and the potential for their use in the energy transition. Critical raw materials are essential for the development of clean technologies, and dependence on their import from third countries is a major challenge for European companies.
“Various scenarios for the transition of the European steel industry still assume a certain share of steel production by the blast furnace method, for which JSW should be the main supplier. The challenge facing the new European Commission will be to ensure a consistent legal framework that supports the local mining base thus guaranteeing an adequate reserve of European production. This will help ensure a predictable, stable and sustainable supply of raw materials, while supporting the competitiveness of European industry," noted Jarosław Kluczniok, JSW's Vice-President of the Management Board for Development, during a discussion whose participants included Prof. Herbert Wirth of the Wrocław University of Science and Technology and Prof. Marian Noga of WSB Merito in Wrocław.They highlighted the issue of securing European production of critical raw materials, such as coking coal, as a resource base for European industry supplemented by imports.
This kind of strategic reserve in the form of domestic EU production would provide a guarantee for supply chains in case of unexpected market interruptions and disruptions. With the steel sector's eventual transition to low- and zero-emission technologies, such a resource base would also provide access to coke-oven tar, a valuable raw material for the production of synthetic graphite.
As a reminder, Jarosław Kluczniok, Vice-President of the JSW SA Management Board for Development, has been elected President of the Critical Raw Materials Alliance in Brussels. The CRM Alliance is the leading organization representing the interests of companies involved in the extraction, processing and trading of critical raw materials in Europe.
