A long-term marketing agreement has been announced between one of the world's biggest steelmakers and Houston, Texas-based JD Fields & Company.
The deal gives JD Fields & Company the sole distribution rights to ArcelorMittal's steel sheet piling systems in North America, which includes the international standard AZ sheet pile series and the HZR high modulus combi-wall system, both of which are widely considered to be the industry gold standard, claims ArcelorMittal, based on the company's 'commitment to cutting edge R&D innovations, and engineering support'.
For JD Fields & Company, the deal 'constitutes a major step' for the business in the domestic foundation steel distribution sector and represents a new era for ArcelorMittal's sheet piling business in North America.
“Fields Construction Products Group has been on a steep growth trajectory for the past four years, building a reputation as one of the top leaders in the industry with cultivation of the best sales team in the business."
Walter Van Zuthem, executive vice president & construction products president, JD Fields & Company
“Fields Construction Products Group has been on a steep growth trajectory for the past four years, building a reputation as one of the top leaders in the industry with cultivation of the best sales team in the business,” said JDF executive vice president and construction products president Walter Van Zuthem. “The addition of ArcelorMittal’s elite piling products to JDF’s already successful product arsenal will accelerate our growth trajectory even further,” he added.
In addition to developing projects with ArcelorMittal, JDF is positioned to strategically stock the most competitive light, medium, intermediate, and heavy AZ sections to service engineering design and contracting professionals in its exclusive territory, which embraces the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean.
“The addition of ArcelorMittal’s AZ sheet pile series and HZ-M combined wall system significantly enhances JDF’s current standing and serves as an additional signal bearer for where the company is headed."
Dean Abbondanza, director of engineering, JDF
“The addition of ArcelorMittal’s AZ sheet pile series and HZR-M combined wall system significantly enhances JDF’s current standing and serves as an additional signal bearer for where the company is headed,” remarked Dean Abbondanza, JDF's director of engineering. “Aligning JDF’s current business model of domestic piling and pipe pile production with the ArcelorMittal piling partnership positions JDF to offer customers more enhanced solutions in the deep foundation industry.”
ArcelorMittal is the world’s largest manufacturer of hot rolled steel sheet piles and an industry leader in decarbonization. The company has stressed its commitment to leading the steel industry’s efforts to decarbonize as well as being part of the solution to the world reaching net-zero by 2050. In addition to a 2050 net-zero target, ArcelorMittal has set a group target of reducing CO2 emissions intensity by 25% by 2030, and by 35% by 2030 within ArcelorMittal Europe.
These targets are regarded as the most ambitious of any steelmaker, reflecting ArcelorMittal's intent to drive meaningful decarbonization progress this decade. The company has Environmental Product Declarations for a number of its sheet pile products and offers a Life Cycle Assessment of the environmental aspects and potential impacts associated with a sheet pile product or service over its life cycle.
ArcelorMittal’s EcoSheetPile™ Plus range of steel sheet piles, which are manufactured through the electric arc furnace (EAF) route using 100% renewable electricity, has CO2 emissions of 370kg CO2-eq per ton of finished product, compared with average CO2 emissions for the global steel industry for all types of production routes (conventional and electric-based) of around 1.85 tons of CO2-eq per ton of steel products in 2018.