UNIQUE

from Steel Times International Digital June 2023

The role of charcoal in ironmaking

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Workers at Tata Steel in Shotton, UK, are preparing to welcome a new colony of bees housed in hives on one of the site’s spaces, as part of the company’s recent commitment to biodiversity. The site is already well known for hosting nesting sites for seabirds, which were present on the site’s former logo. Works manager, Bill Duckworth, said: “We have recognised that true sustainability requires a holistic approach. So our own commitment includes reducing our site’s carbon footprint, developing and producing products and services that support sustainable construction.’’

Source: The Leader, 22 May 2023.

JSW Steel has announced that it has reached an inprincipal agreement to establish a 50:50 joint venture (JV) with Japan’s JFE Steel to manufacture cold-rolled grain-oriented electrical steel (CRGO) in India. The agreement progresses an MOU signed between the two companies in May 2021. “The feasibility study has since been completed and both JSW Steel and JFE Steel have, in principle, reached an agreement to establish a 50:50 joint venture company. The JV will be able to manufacture the entire range of CRGO products at its proposed facilities at Vijayanagar, Karnataka, India,” JSW Steel said.

Source: Business Standard, 22 May 2023.

A Chinese salvage ship has been caught ‘looting the war graves of hundreds of British sailors’ for scrap metal off the coast of Malaysia. The World War II battleship HMS Prince of Wales was sunk by Japanese bombers in 1941 in the South China Sea. An older battlecruiser, the HMS Repulse, was also sunk just a few miles away, with the shipwrecks, located in Malaysian waters, having since been officially designated as war graves. However, a Chinese vessel has been spotted illegally within the area of the wreck, attempting to salvage the steel used in the manufacture of the warship's hulls.

Source: Daily Mail, 23 May 2023.

ArcelorMittal Dofasco has been fined $175,000 over a workplace incident that amputated a steelworker’s fingers. The fine was imposed after the Hamilton steelmaker pleaded guilty in virtual court to one charge under the provincial Occupational Health and Safety Act. A second workplace safety charge was withdrawn. The victim of the incident was a mill operator at the plant’s No.2 tube mill and lost four fingers from her left hand.

Source: The Hamilton Spectator, 24 May 2023.

Russian steelmaker NLMK Group has launched a rolled steel product with an antibacterial coating. First batches of the new product have been trialled successfully by NLMK partners: Grand Line and Albes Production Association. According to the company, the antibacterial coating protects the metal against harmful micro-organisms and makes it perfect for interior finishing of various facilities, particularly in the food industry and healthcare.

Source: Steel Orbis, 24 May 2023.

Electrical equipment manufacturer Plug Power has landed three containerized electrolyzer projects, including a partnership with APEX Group to demonstrate the feasibility of producing green steel through the decarbonization of ArcelorMittal’s local blast furnaces. Plug will deliver two 5MW electrolyzer modules with a capacity to produce 4.2 metric tons per day of green hydrogen to SWB, the city’s public utility company, by the end of this year. The long-term goal is full decarbonization of the steel industry in northern Germany and the rest of Europe.

Source: Green Car Congress, 24 May 2023.

German steelmaker Salzgitter has initiated a consortium comprising of companies including Tenova, Danieli, and DSD Steel Group to undertake the construction of a DRI plant at the site of Salzgitter Flachstahl in Lower Saxony, Germany. Salzgitter's goal is to achieve low CO2 steelmaking, with the plant planned to reach an annual production capacity of over 2Mt of DRI.

Source: Steel Guru, 25 May 2023.

Tata Steel has made a donation of around $120,000 to Tata Medical Centre (TMC) in Kolkata, India, as a token of ‘support and appreciation for their continued efforts to address the needs of cancer patients within and outside India’ The contribution was made possible through the auction of the first four coils (62Mt) of cold rolled steel produced at Tata Steel’s newly commissioned cold rolling mill complex unit in Kalinganagar, Odisha, according to a media statement.

Source: Goa Chronicle, 26 May 2023.

JSW Group is exploring possibilities to acquire coking coal mines in offshore markets, according to industry sources, which stated that the industrial conglomerate is exploring mineral assets in countries like Australia and Mozambique. Captive coking coal mines would assist JSW Steel in reducing its cost of production for manufacturing steel, the sources added, with the company currently meeting 60% of its coking coal requirement via imports.

Source: The New Indian Express, 28 May 2023.

Forza Steel, a Mexican industrial engineering company that manufactures structural tubing and helical pipe products, plans to build a new pipe plant in Brownsville, Texas. The company expects the new plant's imports will reach around 260kt/yr and produce 240kt/yr of pipe products. The new plant will supply steel pipes and tubes for the automotive, construction, and oil and gas industries. Forza Steel plans to begin rolling mill operations in July.

Source: Yieh Corp Steel News, 29 May 2023.

Pensioenfonds Hoogovens, the pension fund for workers of the Tata Steel plant in the Netherlands, is focusing its new climate policy on reducing the CO2 emissions of its current portfolio. In a move reminiscent of a recent announcement by Swedish pension fund AP7, Hoogovens said in its annual report that its policy will centre on realising ‘real world change’. The fund’s president, and PensionsEurope chair, Janwillem Bouma commented: “This means we will primarily focus on attaining reductions of emissions due to improvements in production processes and policies of the companies in our existing portfolio.”

Source: IPE, 2 June 2023

The Indian steel ministry has announced plans for a centre that will aid research and development projects to set up pilot plants for production and utilisation of green hydrogen in the iron and steel making processes. Investments for the centre have been organized under the National Green Hydrogen Mission to ‘support the domestic steel industry's endeavours to find scalable uses of hydrogen produced using environmentally sustainable practises’, the ministry said in a statement. Source: The Economic Times, 2 June 2023.

German steelmaker Thyssenkrupp's workers' union announced plans to hold protests in June over what they feared could be lower than anticipated government subsidies for a $2.2 billion German green steel plant. The demonstration, cited to take place at Thyssenkrupp's steel hub in Duisburg, followed on from weeks of uncertainty over whether Berlin would fulfil its commitment to co-fund the direct reduction iron (DRI) facility.

Source: Reuters, 2 June 2023.

Hydrogen Oman, a subsidiary of Energy Development Oman, has signed three agreements granting the first green hydrogen blocks in the Sultanate of Oman with a total investment value exceeding $20 billion. The three projects were signed with the consortia of Amnah, Green Energy Oman, and BP Oman. The consortium will develop around 200kt/yr of green hydrogen from 4.5 GW of installed renewable energy capacity for planned green steel plants located in the Port of Duqm, within the Special Economic Zone at Duqm. Source: Times of Oman, 3 June 2023.

• The UK generates 10Mt/yr of steel scrap of which 80% is exported to other countries for recycling.

Source: GHG Alliance.

• Already accounting for around 30% of global production, EAFs will increasingly replace primary plants that require reinvestment, meaning that the proportion of scrap in total worldwide steel production is likely to reach 40% in 2050.

Source: GHG Alliance.

• In the UK, the export of scrap metal should be approached with national strategic beneﬁts and risks in mind.

Source: GHG Alliance.

• The UK produces large quantities of scrap, in excess of what UK steelmakers require for their own production. However, it is often in a poor condition.

Source: GHG Alliance.

• The Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) is currently the technology with the lowest carbon footprint. Typically, 500 to 800 kg of C02 are generated for each tonne of steel produced.

Source: CIX Inc.

• Projections of scrap availability between now and 2050 indicate that the quantity of scrap available for recycling will grow considerably.

Source: CIX Inc.

• The availability of sufﬁcient quantities of DR grade pellets is questionable and in general, ore quality is declining globally.

Source: CIX Inc.

• Without ore-based-metals (OBMs) in the scrap mix, a signiﬁcant portion of steel scrap will become impossible to recycle and will be destined for land ﬁll.

Source: CIX Inc.

• Better design of products, such as automobiles and appliances, must be focused on easy dismantling at end-oflife so that free copper and other residuals can be more easily removed.

Source: CIX Inc.

• Improved technologies need to be developed to acquire detailed knowledge about the composition and quality of scrap to enhance its utilization.

Source: K1-MET/ Montanuniversitaet, Leoben

• Compared to steel production from primary raw materials, melting scrap requires less resources and decreases process-related C02 emissions by up to 75%.