Steel at the Core of Tomorrow’s Data Centers

On October 14–15,  Emma Kerr and Nikolas Stockman from ArcelorMittal Europe – Tubular Products attended the Data Center Building Event in Belval, Luxembourg, hosted by ArcelorMittal Steligence®. The event brought together more than 120 industry professionals to discuss the future of low-carbon and resource-efficient data center construction.

Speakers from across the industry, including McKinsey & Company, RKD, Ingenium, Arup, WSP, Ramboll Management Consulting, Arcadis, Tate, Primekss, and William Hare Group, shared their perspectives on how collaboration and innovation can accelerate the transition to more sustainable building practices.

The dramatic growth of AI is driving an exponential increase in the demand for power capacity. In Europe alone, data center capacity is projected to rise by 27%, reaching 13,100 MW, and globally, total demand is expected to more than triple to 180 GW by 2030. This expansion brings significant challenges related to energy efficiency, embodied carbon, and infrastructure design.

Traditionally, Life Cycle Carbon (LEC) assessments have focused only on elements within the building footprint, often overlooking the embodied carbon of MEP (Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing) systems. In data centers, however, these systems represent a major share of embodied carbon and cannot be ignored. This is where low-carbon steel tubes play a crucial role.

From 2025 onwards, new EU regulations will require all data centers with a total rated energy input above 1 MW to conduct technical and economic feasibility studies on waste heat recovery. This marks a decisive step towards circular energy use — integrating data centers into wider district heating networks and reducing environmental impact.

ArcelorMittal’s low-carbon tubular solutions, such as those produced in Karviná, already serve urban heating networks and are ideally suited to support waste heat recovery and cooling systems in data centers — enabling a reduction in both operational and embodied carbon. Similarly, construction tubes from Legutio and Lexy are key for modular data centers, offering up to 50–60% faster assembly and installation times (McKinsey & Company), enhancing both efficiency and sustainability.

For ArcelorMittal Europe – Tubular Products, participating in this event was an opportunity to engage with key stakeholders in the data center sector and explore how tubular steel solutions can contribute to building more sustainable infrastructures for the future.

Discover more about our data center applications