There’s a long way to go, says SteelWatch’s Ashley. Anything could happen. Myra Pinkham reports.
There are more questions than answers, says Matt Groch.
First things first, argues Rutger Gyllenram.
Since 1866
Providing numerous advantages, the JVD® (Jet Vapor Deposition) technology is expected to replace current continuous hot-dip and electro galvanizing processes in the years to come.
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EDITORIAL
Editor
Matthew Moggridge
Tel: +44 (0) 1737 855151
matthewmoggridge@quartzltd.com
Assistant Editor
Catherine Hill
Tel:+44 (0) 1737855021
Consultant Editor
Dr. Tim Smith PhD, CEng, MIM
Production Editor Annie Baker
Advertisement Production Carol Baird
SALES
International Sales Manager
Paul Rossage
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Ken Clark
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Managing Director
Tony Crinion
Cover photo courtesy of John Cockerill. Providing numerous advantages, the JVD® (Jet Vapour Deposition) technology is expected to replace current continuous hot-dip and electro-galvanizing processes in the years to come.
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Steel Times International (USPS No: 020-958) is published monthly except Feb, May, July, Dec by Quartz Business Media Ltd and distributed in the US by DSW, 75 Aberdeen Road, Emigsville, PA 17318-0437. Periodicals postage paid at Emigsville, PA. POSTMASTER send address changes to Steel Times International c/o PO Box 437, Emigsville, PA 17318-0437.
Europe’s green shift: carbon capture is not the answer.
Steel decarbonization: vital to achieving net zero.
Latin America update Acesita/Aperam: Celebrating 80 years (Part 2).
India update Holding the balance.
Technological pathways to decarbonization.
Perspectives: IDOM
Building the industry of the future.
Decarbonization – first thing first.
US policy
Are GASSA and a US CBAM dead under Trump 2.0?
Pioneers of coke-ironmaking: Part 2Clemente Clerke and Shadrach Fox.
Matthew Moggridge Editor
matthewmoggridge@quartzltd.com
A lot of people probably thought it was all over after the 6 January Capitol Building riots in Washington DC in 2021, but they were wrong. Trump is back, he’s survived assassination attempts and legal challenges and now he’s bigger and bolder and out for revenge on those he feels have done him wrong. It’s like a movie trailer Trump – they stole his presidency, now he wants it back!
Trump is like Marmite, you like him or hate him, and if you’re the latter you’re probably warbling about the ‘end of democracy’, which doesn’t add up as Trump won fair and square. Now he’s about to embark upon a second term, the one he thought he was so cruelly denied.
What should we expect from another four years of The Donald? Well, he’s a climate denier so it will be interesting to see if he really plans to ‘drill, drill, drill’. He’s not keen on illegal immigration, so expect a crackdown there and while masquerading as ‘free speech’ it looks as if misinformation (fake news) will be rife as embarassingly subservient social media geeks dispense with fact checkers, and one reputable American newspaper takes free speech off the agenda. He’s bound to
Trump, Trump!
cosy up to war criminal Vladimir Putin, he might even invade Greenland. He will be the epitome of ‘right wing’.
If you listen to the left, the right is all about ‘the boss’, bringing back the birch, capital punishment, business first, people second, less rights for workers and women, deregulation: who cares about air pollution as long as we’re profiting? The right, it is said, are the spoil sports, the bad guys, the party poopers, the costcutters, they’ve gotten rid of the hip liberal studies lecturer with his acoustic guitar and protest songs and replaced him with Mr Creakle from David Copperfield
But remember this: Trump is not a politician, he’s a businessman, and when it comes to the North American steel industry, a second Trump presidency will most likely be good news. It will mean hefty tariffs on steel exported to the USA from places like China, the dumper-in-chief of cheap and environmentally suspect steel, so I would imagine steel chiefs stateside will soon be saying they’ve never had it so good, like they did last time.
In this issue, then, we ask what a Trump presidency will mean for North American and, indeed, global steelmakers.
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Britain’s tax authority is contemplating voting against a court-led restructuring of the steel businesses owned by metal magnate Sanjeev Gupta. HM Revenue & Customs is understood to be in ongoing talks with Gupta's Liberty Steel about proposals that would see it forfeit the majority of the tax it is owed. Source: MSN, 7 December 2024.
Gerdau, one of the largest steelmakers in Brazil, has announced that it will cooperate with its subsidiary Gerdau Aços Longos and electricity supplier Newave Energia to build a solar park with a total capacity of approximately 452 MWp in Barro Alto in northern Goiás state, Brazil. The total investment of this project is around R$1.3 billion. The construction is planned for completion within the first six months of 2026.
Source: Yieh Corp Steel News, 10 December 2024.
Chinese researchers have developed an ironmaking technology that could change the game for the global steel industry. The new method, which injects finely ground iron ore powder into a furnace, initiates an ‘explosive chemical reaction.’ This leads to a continuous stream of high-purity iron which forms as liquid droplets that collect at the bottom of the furnace for direct casting or one-step steelmaking.
Source: NewsBytes, 8 December 2024.
Carbon recycling company LanzaTech ArcelorMittal have announced that ethanol from ArcelorMittal's commercial flagship Steelanol facility in Ghent, Belgium, has achieved a production milestone whereby ethanol volumes have ramped to a significant enough level to support large-scale shipping by barge. The ethanol is en route to be purified and sold to LanzaTech’s CarbonSmart customers.
Source: yahoo!finance, 11 December 2024.
Romanian steel mill ArcelorMittal Hunedoara, part of multinational steel manufacturing corporation ArcelorMittal, temporarily reduced its activity due to economic difficulties caused by a lack of orders. The steel mill curtailed its operations from 9-31 December, ArcelorMittal Hunedoara said in a statement filed with the Bucharest Stock Exchange. Source: SeeNews, 9 December 2024.
The Moselle River in West Germany, one of the key transportation routes for raw materials, will remain closed to shipping until March 2025 due to damage caused by a cargo ship carrying 1.5kt of ferrous scrap, which collided with a lock gate near Müden. As a result, about 70 ships were stuck between
SSAB has entered into an agreement with SNOP, an automotive supplier, to deliver fossil-free steel, with a goal to reduce carbon emissions in vehicle production. This partnership aligns with SNOP’s goal of reducing CO2 emissions by 30% by 2030 and achieving net zero by 2050. Groupe Financière SNOP Dunois (FSD), the parent company of SNOP, is a tier-one supplier to European automotive manufacturers. Operating in 12 countries, it runs 36 production facilities and four technical centres, employing over 8,200 people.
Source: Machine Maker, 9 December 2024.
Source: GMK Center, 11 December 2024.
POSCO Future M Co., a battery material and steel manufacturing equipment supplier, has developed Luxembourg and Koblenz, and transportation of raw materials by river became unfeasible, Reuters reported. The accident has already had a negative impact on the logistics operations of large steel companies, including ArcelorMittal, which received up to 10% of its scrap supplies through the port of Mertera in Luxembourg.
India has come up with a definition of what constitutes 'green steel', as pressure to decarbonize the sector continues to ramp up. The taxonomy framework, launched by union minister for steel and heavy industries H.D. Kuamaraswamy, aims to be a step towards transforming India’s steel industry into a more sustainable, low-carbon sector by defining a clear framework for promoting the adoption of green technologies in steel production. Kuamaraswamy said the decarbonization of steel was of utmost importance as the industry accounted for almost 7% of global CO2 emissions.
Source: Mint, 12 December 2024.
Honda Motor Co. has announced that it will collaborate with Nippon Steel to conduct a research project for setting up a hydrogen utilization model in Thailand with a ‘local production for local consumption’ approach. Nippon Steel, which owns Rojana Industrial Park in Thailand, and Honda will work together to determine the feasibility and viability
British Steel has given full-time positions to 37 apprentices after they completed their training, with more than half based in Scunthorpe. The new employees, who specialise in either mechanical, fabrication and welding, or electrical engineering, received the news after finishing a threeyear apprenticeship with the business. 23 of the apprentices are based at British Steel’s headquarters in Scunthorpe, with 14 more at its operations in Teesside and Skinningrove.
Source: yahoo!news, 12 December 2024.
of the project and target the widespread use of green hydrogen produced through solar power generation within the industrial park.
Source: Yieh Corp Steel News, 23 December 2024.
Tata Steel UK and construction equipment manufacturer JCB have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the supply of low-CO2 steel. Under the agreement, Tata Steel will supply the British construction equipment manufacturer with green steel from Port Talbot after completing its transformation plans. JCB, which maintains a close focus on carbon reduction in its manufacturing and equipment, will integrate the steel into its machinery range.
Source: Production Engineering Solutions, 16 December 2024.
South Korean steelmaker POSCO has been named the world's most competitive steelmaker in a global industry report for the 15th consecutive year. In the annual assessment of 35
Dutch regulators recently threatened to close down one of Tata Steel's main ovens at its plant in IJmuiden if it doesn't limit pollution within a year. The regulators said Tata's coke oven at the plant continued to operate in breach of environmental regulations and they would consider revoking the licence for the oven if pollution wasn't cut within a year. Tata has repeatedly said closure of the oven would threaten the existence of the whole steel plant on the Dutch coast west of Amsterdam.
Source: Reuters, 19 December 2024.
steelmakers worldwide, global steel information service provider World Steel Dynamics (WSD) gave POSCO 8.62 points out of 10, according to the South Korean company. The WSD report, which ranks the steelmakers based on 23 categories, gave top scores for POSCO in five segments, including technological innovation and processing cost, the company said.
Source: Yonhap News Agency, 24 December 2024.
electrode rod manufacturing technology, the first South Korean company to do so, amid major economies' stricter export controls on key industrial materials. It has succeeded in producing ‘ultra-high-power electrode rods’, key components in the steel manufacturing process, with a diameter of 300mm. Electrode rods are used to melt steel scrap in electric furnaces or to remove impurities from molten iron in the refining process. Source: The Korea Economic Daily, 12 December 2024.
Odisha-based ferrochrome producer Indian Metals & Ferro Alloys (IMFA) has entered into a joint venture with JSW Green Energy to purchase renewable energy in its smelting operations. IMFA will invest Rs 83.26 crore to build a hybrid energy project combining 50 MW AC solar with 100 MW of wind for a total capacity of 70 MW for a 25-year power purchase agreement.
Source: Yieh Corp Steel News, 25 December 2024.
Tees Valley (UK) mayor Ben Houchen has written to Members of Parliament across the region asking for their support in the campaign for an electric arc furnace (EAF) in Teesside. Mayor Houchen hopes that any deal that the government makes with British Steel will include a commitment to building an electric arc furnace in Teesside, following national reports that the proposals had been shelved.
Source: Teesside Live, 6 December 2024.
Four workers were killed, and another injured in a fire at a steel plant in the Hazira industrial area within the Gujarat state of India, officials said. “We have learnt that the fire spread in one section of the plant after burning coal suddenly spilled over. The resultant blaze killed four labourers, who were on a lift at that time in the plant,” the police commissioner stated.
Source: Mint, 1 January 2025.
Tata Steel’s ‘H Blast furnace’, the company’s first large-scale blast furnace at Jamshedpur, has exceeded 50Mt of hot metal production. This makes the H Blast Furnace the first in India to accomplish this production level without undergoing any mid-term repairs, the company has claimed. The ‘H’ Blast Furnace was commissioned in 2008, having a working volume of 3230m³.
Source: Tata Steel, 8 January 2025.
Spanish coil processing company Network Steel (NS) has acquired Thyssenkrupp's Galmed plant in Sagunto, Valencia. The plant can produce 450kt/yr of hotdip galvanized coil. The material is mainly supplied to the automotive sector.
“Thyssenkrupp Galmed management informed us that negotiations were successfully completed,” the Workers’ Commissions union said.
Source: Metallurgprom, 1 January 2025.
Steel producer ArcelorMittal South Africa's shares fell more than 15% after the company said it would proceed with the closure of its loss-making long steel business. The closure of the operations has been on the cards since November 2023 amid prolonged weak economic conditions, logistics and energy challenges, and competition from low-cost imports. The company said shutting the plant, which produces fencing material, rail, rods and bars used in the construction, mining and manufacturing sectors, could
POSCO has decided to install a Danieli Rotelec multi-mode electromagnetic mold stirrer (EMS) at its Gwangyang Works in South Korea. The stirrer will be installed on the No.1 slab caster at the facility’s No. 2 steel plant, replacing the old system with a goal to improve production of high-quality slabs. The caster is a two-strand machine that produces 250mm-thick slabs in ultra-low, low-, medium- and high-carbon grades.
“The installation of this new technology will be instrumental in supporting POSCO’s ability to meet the growing demand for high-quality steel while maintaining its competitive edge in an increasingly demanding market,” POSCO said.
Source: Danieli, 2 January 2025.
affect about 3,500 direct and indirect jobs.
Source: Reuters, 6 January 2025.
Australian mining company Fortescue has announced plans to partner with a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Baowu Steel Group, the world's largest steelmaker, to address challenges in decarbonizing the global steel industry. Fortescue, the world's fourthlargest iron ore supplier, signed a memorandum of understanding with Baowu Resources, the company said on its WeChat account. "We are committed to building a green iron supply chain," the company statement said, quoting Fortescue's COO Shelley Robertson.
Source: Reuters, 8 January 2025.
Dutch company Van Merksteijn and Badische Stahlwerke (BSW), part of Südwest Beteiligungen (SWB), plan to merge their rebar businesses in 2025, the companies informed their customers in a joint letter, noting that the merger is currently under review by antitrust and market authorities. After obtaining the necessary approvals, the parties intend to establish a joint holding company, Reinforcing Steel Europe B.V., headquartered in Almelo, the Netherlands, in the spring.
Source: GMK Center, 9 January 2025.
A United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority working group has successfully demonstrated the industrial scale production of fusiongrade steel. This achievement has the potential to reduce production costs by an order of magnitude and improve the efficiency of future fusion powerplants, the working group has said. The group successfully produced fusiongrade reduced-activation ferritic-martensitic (RAFM) steel on an industrial scale, using a seven-tonne EAF at the Materials Processing Institute in Middlesbrough in the United Kingdom.
Source: UK Energy Authority, 9 January 202.5
Tata Steel, in association with the District Administration Dhenkanal and Odisha Athletic Association, hosted the 2nd Edition of the Tata Steel Kapilash Half Marathon 2025 on 11 January, at Kapilash, Dhenkanal. The event took place at the Kapilash Wildlife Sanctuary with the theme – “Run to Protect Wildlife”. Over 4,600 runners from all over the country participated.
Source: Biz Industry, 11 January 2025.
Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen has written to UK Members of Parliament calling for action after a British newspaper reported that the government is making a deal with British Steel to build furnaces in Scunthorpe and ‘bypassing’ Teesside. Media reports state that the government is currently making a deal with Jingye Group, owner of British Steel, to build both furnaces in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire.
Source: The Northern Echo, 12 January 2025.
The European Steel Association (EUROFER) has presented the European Commission with its initial findings on how to strengthen safeguard measures on steel imports as part of their current review. The association has proposed a reduction of tariff quotas to reflect the decline in steel demand in the bloc. EUROFER has also suggested that the duties applied to imports in excess of the quota should be increased from the current 25% to a possible 32-41%.
Source: GMK Center, 11 January 2025.
Bokaro Steel Plant, an integrated steel plant in India, has taken a step toward environmental conservation and sustainable development by adopting the Confederation of Indian Industry’s GreenCo rating system, which evaluates an organization’s green initiatives. The rating system is focused on parameters such as energy management, water management, material resource management, carbon accounting, green supply chains, and innovation.
Source: The Pioneer, 13 January 2025.
DIGIMELTER®
Performances, operational reliability and quick startups are the result of 20 years of continuous research and development activities, carried out at the Danieli research center and onsite together with partnering customers. Depending on plant configuration, MIDA QLP can make use of more than 30 Danieli patents covering technological layouts, production equipment and Danieli Automation solutions, such as power, instrumentation and intelligent digital controls.
— The most efficient, digitally controlled electric steelmaking with no impact on the power grid.
— 10 m/min casting speed, allowing up to 1.5-Mtpy productivity on one casting strand, 23.5 hours out of 24 of continuous endless-casting operation.
— No gas-reheating furnace, and no induction heating during casting.
— Danieli Automation robotics and artificial intelligence for zero-men on the floor.
— Least power-consuming process with the lowest carbon footprint.
— The most competitive plant in terms of CapEx and OpEx.
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With the order placed by CMC Steel for its fourth new, MIDA QLP hybrid-ready minimill, the Danieli scorecard hits 26 plants for long-product endless casting-rolling, out of 115 total minimills.
PLANTS
Finnish recycling services provider
Konepeikko Oy has awarded Primetals Technologies the contract to supply a new torch-cutting machine for its facilities located at steel producer Ovako Imatra Oy Ab’s premises in Imatra, Finland. This solution is part of Primetals Technologies’ latest developments in scrap cutting, and is significantly reducing noise emissions, the company has said.
A dedusting system aims to ensure that dust emissions from the cutting process remain well below the limits set by environmental regulations. Additionally, the cutting machine is placed inside a moveable cabin, reducing noise emissions. This new technology enables Konepeikko Oy to comply with Finnish environmental regulations, which was one of the main influencing factors for its decision, along with improved process efficiency and occupational safety.
Operators control the machine at a safe
Primetals Technologies to supply torch-cutting solution
distance from a desk outside the cutting cabin, supported by a video monitoring system. Predefined cutting programmes simplify operation and reduce processing times, says Primetals.
Konepeikko Oy’s new machine will cut various types of scrap, including billets, blooms, and bundles of rolled bars. The system’s ability to integrate iron powder into the cutting process allows for the cutting of tundish skull, rolling mill rolls, and other hard, high-alloy materials.
This advanced technology was developed by experts from former TCT Torch-Cutting Technol-
ogies, a Spanish company acquired by Primetals Technologies in August 2023.
For more information, log on to www.primetals.com
Martin Engineering opens new business unit
Bulk handling solutions supplier, Martin Engineering, has announced the opening of a new business unit in Kazakhstan.
Based in the country’s largest city and commercial centre, Almaty, in the Southeast of Kazakhstan, the new venture will act as a regional hub enabling Martin to bring its full range of products and services to the fast-growing mining sector across Central Asia.
The decision to establish a business unit in Kazakhstan builds on Martin Engineering’s success in the country to date, says the company, including delivering conveyor belt cleaning solutions to one of Kazakhstan’s largest copper producers to maximise plant efficiency and productivity.
Now Kazakhstan’s mining and mineral processing companies have access to a broader portfolio of conveyor products, such as Martin’s CleanScrape® belt cleaners, Orion SQC2S™ Secondary Belt Cleaner, and Air Cannons featuring SMART™
Series Nozzles to ensure material flow.
The new business will be led by general manager Oleg Glukhov, who has worked with Martin Engineering for the past seven years. Glukhov stated that Martin is well-placed to support Kazakhstan’s leading minerals processing firms to improve operational performance and safety.
“Kazakhstan is one of the world’s key sources of metals and industrial minerals,” he explained.
“Processing materials safely, efficiently and profitably is important, and that’s where Martin Engineering comes in – our market-leading products and services are proven to solve materials handling challenges for the world’s biggest mining and minerals companies,” said Glukhov.
For further information, log on to www.martin-eng.com
Two Konecranes reach stackers have just started handling containers at the Ultraport terminal in Puerto Angamos, a major port for Chile’s copper exports. Ultraport is ramping up efforts to reduce emissions and chose lift trucks featuring Flow Drive, a Konecranes innovation that uses a special transmission to cut fuel consumption without losing performance.
Ultraport has been a Konecranes customer for over a decade, with an extensive fleet that includes over 30 reach stackers and several mobile harbour cranes throughout Chile. They are part of Ultramar, which has installed the first Konecranes Rail-Mounted Gantry (RMG) cranes on the continent at the Terminal Graneles del Norte (TGN).
“As one of the leading port operators in Chile, we have a responsibility to maintain sustainable business in the region. Because Puerto Angamos plays such a key role in the Chilean economy, we believe it is the ideal location to start our emissions reduction programme,” said Nelson Ojeda, manager of Ultraport Angamos.
“The first Konecranes Flow Drive reach stackers in Latin America are a natural addition to Ultraport’s large Konecranes fleet. Their faith in our technology and expertise convinced them that this is the best solution for their emissions initiative. And we’re proud to work with trusted local distributor Trex to help Ultraport achieve their goals,” commented Andres Ramirez, sales manager, Konecranes Lift Trucks.
The two new lift trucks are Konecranes SMV 4632 TC5 reach stackers, equipped with Flow Drive, a solution that utilizes a hydromechanical variable transmission (HVT) to limit power at low speed, reducing wear and carbon emissions while cutting fuel consumption by up to 25% compared to a reach stacker with standard diesel configuration. A number of optional onboard
features improve performance and safety while further reducing environmental impact, says Konecranes: the Hydraulic Long Life (HLL) filter increases the oil change interval, automated central greasing minimizes mechanical wear and reduces maintenance, and two additional cameras located on the spreader that allow the driver to check the twist locks during the whole operation, while one rear camera aids visibility in reverse manoeuvres. TRUCONNECT® Remote Monitoring collects operational diagnostics to help optimize usage and the premium upgrade adds tyre pressure monitoring to maintain stability, further cut fuel consumption and extend tyre lifetime.
This delivery is part of Ecolifting™, Konecranes’ vision to increase its handprint – meaning the beneficial environmental impact that can be achieved with its product and service portfolio –while reducing customers’ carbon footprints.
For further information, log on to www.konecranes.com
Leybold releases new dry screw vacuum pump
Leybold’s new DURADRY is a dry screw vacuum pump designed for medium-harsh industrial production processes where high temperatures, high oxygen contents and corrosive conditions prevail. Its features make it the perfect solution for applications like crystal pulling, plasma cleaning, heat treatment, coating and battery production, says the company. “The pump’s main advantages are its ease of operation and low maintenance requirements,” commented Leybold product manager Darong Li, highlighting the strengths of the two models in the160 and 250 m³/h pump speed classes.
“User friendliness, reliability and outstanding vacuum performance are all high on the list of requirements for targeted industrial sectors,” added Li. The developers have also focused on an advanced rotor design and variable speed control (VSD). Through the use of a Smart Drive, users can monitor critical parameters such as rotor speeds and temperatures, allowing for continuous operation.
Equipped with sensors and a dynamic seal, the hermetically-tight system aims to prevent the introduction of oil particles and contamination. Thanks to its plug-and-play design, both models also offer various set-up options and are intuitive and easy to operate.
The package is available in a pared-down industrial version or in an electronic housing. For comparison, the industrial version requires approximately 30% less floor space than the electronic version with an integrated HMI interface that is specially designed to meet the environmental requirements of the electrical industry.
For further information, log on to www.leybold.com
Fives supplies OTO tube mills
Steel structure manufacturer Metalogalva has contracted plant supplier Fives to design, supply and commission two OTO tube mills and a high-speed OTO cut-off for its MSS Steel Tubes production subsidiaries in Portugal and the USA.
The first OTO tube mill was commissioned in March 2022 at the MSS Steel Tubes plant in Vila Nova de Famalicão, Portugal. The technology enabled the customer to produce structural and solar tubes at a constant productivity speed, says Fives. To further increase its efficiency, the company also ordered a high-speed OTO cut-off in 2023, which will be installed in the coming months.
“This project is in line with Metalogalva’s strategic and sustainable development in the renewable energy industry, which is booming worldwide. Fives’ technologies have exceeded our expectations in terms of engineering and reliability. That’s why we continue investing, not only in Portugal but also in the US, where demand is
growing, with a preference for local production,” said Nuno Guimarães, purchase and logistic HoA at Metalogalva.
Metalogalva then entrusted Fives to supply a new OTO tube mill for its MSS Steel Tubes plant in Memphis, USA. The first tube was successfully produced in November 2024, marking an important milestone.
“Our long-term partnership with Fives led us to choose again its fully automated solutions to achieve maximum productivity and ensure high-quality standards. The collaboration between the teams has been excellent – from sales, project management, commissioning and after-sales, and we are proud to have delivered another successful project together,” added Guimarães.
For further information, log on to www.fives.com
JetStream introduces new combination manifold
Jetstream, a manufacturer of industrial high-pressure waterblasting equipment, parts and accessories, has introduced a combination manifold for its 4200 Series UNxTM Bareshaft pump. The redesign allows pressure transitions between 10,000 psi to 15,000 psi to 20,000 psi and back again within minutes. The new set-up streamlines conversions in the field for contractors who require different operating pressures for various applications.
“The combination manifold design was born from customer feedback. We found more contractors wanting an easier way to convert lower-pressure pumps to 20,000 psi. While con-
ZUMBACH offers laser technology with ODAC®
To meet the quality requirements of nuclear power stations, manufacturers rely on advanced measurement and control systems in the production of steel tubing, and as a global producer of non-contact measuring technologies, ZUMBACH Electronic offers a range of products that play a crucial role in this process.
The ODAC® laser measuring heads utilize laser technology to measure the diameter and ovality of steel tubes with accuracy and reliability, claims ZUMBACH. These non-contact measuring devices are capable of detecting deviations from specified dimensions, ensuring that each tube meets the required standard, and can be used in almost every harsh environment. The high scan rates and accuracy of ODAC® systems make them ideal for in-line measurements during production, allowing for real-time quality control, says ZUMBACH.
The USYS processor complements the ODAC® by providing comprehensive data acquisition, processing and display capabilities, as well as linking to higher level systems. USYS collects data from the ODAC® measuring heads (as well as other measuring devices offered by ZUMBACH Electronic), processing it to provide reports and detailed insights into the manufacturing process. Real-time data allows for immediate adjustments to be made.
For further information, log on to www.zumbach.com
Tenova takes part in hydrogen recovery research
In July 2024, the European Union-funded LIFE H2Reuse project launched with the goal of significantly enhancing energy efficiency and reducing the environmental impact of the bright annealing process in seamless stainless steel and nickel alloy tube production. This initiative seeks to develop innovative solutions for hydrogen recovery and reuse. It is co-ordinated by DMV (Cogne Group, formerly Mannesman Stainless Tubes), a player in precision tube manufacturing, and its partners, including Tenova, a developer and provider of sustainable solutions for the green transition of the metals industry, with branches in Italy and Germany.
In the bright annealing process, 100% hydrogen is used in high-temperature furnaces to produce high-performance tubes with superior
surface quality, corrosion resistance, and durability. Currently, hydrogen is flared after each production cycle, leading to significant waste. The LIFE H2Reuse project aims to address this issue by developing two technical solutions: recovering the wasted hydrogen from the annealing process and reusing it as fuel in radiant tubes working 100% of hydrogen. This approach represents a market-first innovation, says Tenova, as the recovery of atmospheric gas for reuse in industrial processes is not yet commercially available.
While hydrogen burners are already on the market, they remain in a developmental phase. The LIFE H2Reuse project will focus on enhancing their efficiency and effectiveness in real-world industrial environments. The project’s expected outcomes include significant reductions in carbon
footprint, energy consumption, and resource waste, all of which will be rigorously tested to demonstrate their technical, environmental, and socio-economic benefits.
With the support of its key partners, the project’s innovations are expected to have far-reaching impacts, particularly in industries using high-hydrogen-content atmospheric gas. Among the beneficiaries are Tenova’s roller hearth furnace plants, which could apply the project’s results to reduce their carbon footprint, optimize resource use, and lower operating costs.
For further information, log on to www.tenova.com
versions between 10,000 and 15,000 psi have always been quick and easy with Jetstream pumps, conversions to 20,000 psi have required changing the manifold and valves,” said John Schaer, new products engineering manager at Jetstream.
“With the new design, fewer parts are needed for the change-out, saving time and money.”
The new combination manifold aims to allow for a safe and easy transition between lower and higher pressures by changing the gland nut,
packing, plunger and fittings. The redesigned UniValve can now handle 10,000 to 20,000 psi with conversions in less than 15 minutes. This update allows contractors to adapt their waterblasting pump for a variety of projects without the need to purchase or store as many additional components, says JetStream.
The combination manifold is an available option on all new 4200 Series UNx pumps. The pump series features a ductile iron frame, heat
treated billet alloy steel crankshafts and the largest bearings of any comparable pump. A retrofit kit will also be available for 4200 Series pumps produced in the last 30 years. The kit includes a new manifold, UniValves, stuffing boxes and gland nuts.
For further information, log on to www.waterblast.com
Unlock green steel production
From hot to cold: John Cockerill
Metals offers the entire steel value chain an exceptional opportunity for curbing their CO2 emissions.
The unique combination of its historic and recently developed product portfolio, make John Cockerill one of the industry’s most relevant suppliers of equipment for both the hot and cold phase of the steelmaking and processing industry.
Our three distinct business segments are addressing todays and tomorrow’s challenges supporting sustainable and green steel production:
Iron & Steelmaking: decarbonizing steelmaking, a strategic imperative
Our new upstream offering related to DRI (Direct Reduced Iron), EAF (Electric Arc Furnaces) technologies and the use of hydrogen in steelmaking. Next to offering indirect electrification (DRI-EAF&H2-DRI-EAF),John Cockerill is also working on Volteron®: A first-of-a-kind iron reduction and steel processing route via direct cold electrolysis. This CO2 free steelmaking process, has been co-developed with the world’s leading steelmaker ArcelorMittal.
Processing & Rolling: game changing downstream technologies
Regrouping our historical downstream product portfolio, this segment also includes:
¡ the Jet Vapor Deposition (JVD®) technology set to replace today’s hot-dip or electro galvanizing processes. This novel high-productivity vacuum coating technology provides previously unknown coating flexibility and possibilities, all while offering lower CAPEX and OPEX.
¡ our E-Si® equipment & processing lines specifically designed to produce high-quality Non-Grain Oriented (NGO) steel in response to the need for electrical steel meeting precise metallurgical properties, essential to support the shift towards green mobility.
Services & Energy Efficiency: our unique know how to the benefit of our clients
This segment not only embraces all services and after-sales activities but will be strongly focusing on downstream furnace electrification (reheating and processing line furnaces), as well as hydrogen combustion, and the optimization of plant operations, including energy audits and the modernization of steel production equipment and installations.
Tariffs, and Trump, and trade, Oh My!
US President Donald Trump has promised to impose a number of tariffs in order to discourage Chinese steel imports. By Manik Mehta*
FOREIGN steel supplying nations cannot ever forget the shock they received during the first term of President Donald Trump who imposed 25% tariffs on products imported into the US; for China, particularly, tariffs on its steel exports to the US were a blow. Trump said that the tariffs were necessary to reduce the inflow of heavily subsidized and polluted steel, which also threatened the jobs of American steel workers.
With his second term commencing in January 2025, Trump has said in public comments that he plans to curtail imports by imposing tariffs on imports from Mexico, Canada and China. Chinese steel companies use the Mexico route to ship a wide range of products, including steel, to the US, taking advantage of Mexico’s membership of the North American free trade pact USMCA.
Trump has already held talks with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau; the talks were ‘friendly but also blunt’, as
one source in the steel industry put it. While Trump’s calls were focused on the need to stop illegal migrants and drugs from entering the US, he also emphasized the need to stop Chinese companies from using the two countries, particularly Mexico, to ship their products to the US. The US steel industry has been critical of Mexico serving as a haven for Chinese steel companies to enter the US market, and sees in Trump’s tariff threat a way to discourage imports of heavily subsidized and polluted steel coming from China.
US President Biden formally blocks the US Steel-Nippon
Steel merger
Ending months of speculation whether he would really block the US Steel-Nippon Steel merger – some had even called his move a ‘bluff’ – outgoing US President Joe Biden announced on 3 January that he was blocking the deal, explaining that his decision was aimed at protecting the nation’s security and infrastructure, and also ensure supply-chain resiliency.
*US correspondent, Steel Times International
While Biden had already made it clear in 2024 that he would oppose the deal, both the merger partners had tried to present their merger as a vital factor for the US economy and would preserve its overall strength internationally. Biden opposed the idea of a foreign company holding the control levers of the steel industry which is of vital and strategic importance to the nation. He emphasized that the country needed domestic companies representing the nation’s steelmaking capacity to ‘keep leading the fight on behalf of America’s national interests’.
The President’s decision came after the release of a report on the merger by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). CFIUS, headed by treasury secretary Janet Yellen, evaluates such deals keeping in mind national security interests; it can block the sales or insist on changes to protect national security interests. CFIUS announced on 23 December last year that it could not reach a consensus on the deal, leaving the final
decision to President Biden.
Announcing his decision against the deal, Biden said that as the US President it was his ‘solemn responsibility’ to ensure that America has a strong and domestically owned and operated steel industry that can continue to power its national sources of strength at home and abroad. “US Steel will remain a proud American company – one that’s American-owned, Americanoperated, by American union steelworkers – the best in the world,” he said.
Imports of rolled steel products rose 8.6 % in October
The latest data released by the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) showed that imports of rolled steel products rose by 8.6% to 1.84Mt in October 2024 compared to the previous month. Total imports of steel (rolled and semi-finished products) increased by 12% to 2.3Mt in October compared to September. Galvanized steel accounted for the largest volume of imports, amounting to 241kt (-9.6%) while finished products accounted for 76.9% of total imports.
The January-October 2024 steel imports into the US amounted to 24.66Mt, up 2.6% compared to the same period in 2023. Deliveries of rolled steel products during the period increased by 2.7% year-on-year to 19.09Mt; galvanized steel was imported the most during this period, amounting to 2.6Mt (+42% year-on-year).
Main steel supplying nations in the January-October period were Canada, Brazil and Mexico, with 5.56Mt, 4.08Mt and 2.91Mt respectively.
In 2023, the US had reduced steel
imports by 8.7% to 28.15Mt compared to the previous year. In 2023, imports of rolled steel products declined by 14.1% to 21.69Mt compared to the previous year. Main sources of steel imports were Canada, Mexico and Brazil, accounting for 6.88Mt, 4.18Mt and 3.94Mt respectively. The 2023 import decline was attributed to high import tariffs, increased domestic production, lower steel demand due to economic difficulties and geopolitical factors, including sanctions against some exporting countries.
The rise in steel imports in 2024 are likely to prompt the US steel industry to call for greater restrictions and continuation of tariffs.
Trump’s proposed 60% tariff on imports of Chinese-origin steel may have limited impact following China’s comparatively declining share in US steel imports. One industry expert, preferring to remain anonymous, told Steel Times International that future tariffs may focus on finished or intermediate products. The US industry’s steel capacity has not reached 80% but margins did improve after Section 232 tariffs were imposed in 2018.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington DC reminded in a recent social media post, that there are ‘no winners in a trade war’.
“China-US economic and trade cooperation is mutually beneficial in nature,” an embassy spokesperson Liu Pengyu posted on X. “No one will win a trade war or a tariff war.”
US steel-consuming industries complain that their products will become more expensive and lose their competitive edge in the US market. Procter & Gamble, for
example, has been reviewing its supply chain for the thin strip of stainless steel used in its branded Gillette razors; the company is leaning towards sourcing the product from India in an effort to protect its margins from any tariffs imposed by the new administration.
Gillette-brand razors use a highly specialized stainless steel to prevent cuts and is commercially produced at the facilities of only a few companies outside the US. Procter & Gamble sources its steel, mainly, from Indian manufacturer Jindal Stainless. The US company has ‘learnt its lesson’ from Trump’s first term when it sustained external costs, including tariffs, of some $1.4 billion that affected its profits. The company has previously had business dealings with Jindal but details of its past connections have been guarded.
Renewable hydrogen can be a key to green steel
There is growing interest in steel quarters to use hydrogen made with clean energy as a potential game-changer for the steel industry. Experts say that this colourless, odorless gas can reduce toxic emissions while reducing greenhouse gases by over 90%.
The US administration has made investments, including the United States Energy Department’s Hydrogen Hubs programme, besides granting significant tax incentives under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022; these steps could give the US a global leadership role in producing clean hydrogen. But the administration also needs to invest in hydrogen production from renewable energy. The technology for direct reduced iron (DRI) can also be modified to use hydrogen to produce iron.
Meanwhile, the US already has three DRI plants and several more could follow. The Department of Energy is involved in talks on supporting two new hydrogensupported DRI plants – the first being in Mississippi which would use 100% renewable hydrogen, qualifying as the nation’s first fossil-free steel plant; secondly, Cleveland-Cliffs has plans to replace its Middletown, Ohio blast furnace with a DRI facility, though it has yet to secure a proper supply of hydrogen. The Department of Energy announced seven projects to receive $7 billion in funds to establish hydrogen production hubs nationwide. Hydrogen could potentially become a game-changing factor for the US steel industry. �
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Acesita/Aperam: Celebrating 80 years (Part 2)
In the second part of an analysis of Acesita’s trajectory, the Brazilian steelmaker’s growth throughout the 1970s and 1980s are examined. By Germano Mendes de Paula*
THE 1970s marked a period of significant growth for the Brazilian steel industry, primarily based on the expansion of stateowned enterprises (SOE), and Acesita followed this trend. In 1970, one of its blast furnaces (BF) was revamped, enlarging its capacity from 340t/day to 450t/day. By 1972, a BOF and a mechanised plate mill were commissioned, culminating in the ‘second expansion phase’, which expanded crude steel capacity to 300kt/yr.
In 1973, Acesita initiated ‘Phase I of the Master Expansion Plan’, encompassing
numerous enhancements, including: continuous sintering, 900 t/day BF, EAF and BOF, continuous casting and vacuumoxygen refining, bar rolling for special steels, hot strip rolling, and cold strip rolling. The following year, it established Acesita Forging and Itavale, a joint venture with Vale (at that time also a SOE), in order to explore Periquito iron ore mining. 1977 saw the operation of the Sendzimir cold rolling line for stainless steel sheets and the commissioning of a 120kt/yr Argon Oxygen Decarburisation (AOD) unit to
produce stainless steel as well. This year also marked the start of commercialisation of forged products.
In 1979, Acesita launched the charcoalbased BF #2, which was considered the world’s largest equipment of this type, with a capacity of 900t/day. Additions included a 75t BOF, a new oxygen plant, continuous casting #1, a Steckel hot rolling mill, and a cold rolling mill for grain-oriented electrical/ silicon steel (GOES).
Acesita’s outputs grew significantly along the 1970s, as pig iron increased from 161kt
* Professor in Economics, Federal University of Uberlândia, Brazil. E-mail: germano@ufu.br
in 1972 to 269kt in 1979, and crude steel from 206kt to 300kt, respectively (Fig 1). The production of special longs enlarged from 76kt in 1976 (the earliest year such data was recorded) to 114kt in 1979, while special flats climbed from 16kt in 1972 to 60kt in 1976 and even to 93kt in 1979 (Fig 2). It produced 46kt of flat stainlesssteel products and 15kt of silicon steels in 1979 (Graph 3).
The 1980s
Acesita continued to expand its capacity and enhance its product mix during the 1980s. The first coil of GOES was rolled that year and commercialised in 1981, supported by a technical assistance agreement with US-based Armco. Also in 1981, coal injection began in BF #2.
Between 1983 and 1985, company investments allowed for the completion of ‘Phase I of the Master Expansion Plan’, including the Sendzimir rolling mill #3, the stainless-steel line #2, and cold rolling annealing and pickling lines #2. The company claims that in 1985 the main equipment set production records, in some cases exceeding 20% of rated capacity. In particular, the Sendzimir rolling mill #3 boosted stainless steel supply and freed up other equipment for silicon steel operation. In 1987, technical upgrades led to a 24.5% rise in production at BF #1 through pulverized coal injection, reducing pig iron costs.
During the 1980s, pig iron output increased from 450kt in 1980 to 623kt in 1988, though it dropped to 548kt the following year. The crude steel volume increased from 479kt in 1980 to 768kt in 1998, then declined to 689kt the next year (Fig 1).
The special longs unit performed relatively well in the first half of 1980, when its production expanded from 149kt in 1980 to 197kt in 1985, but then gradually decreased to 112kt in 1989. The fact was
that in this market segment, Acesita was competing with a number of players, such as Anhanguera, Ipanema, Electrometal, Mannesmann, Piratini, Vibasa and Villares. In contrast, Acesita was the sole domestic producer of special flats. For that reason, the company was able to expand its output from 142kt in 1980 to 418kt 1988, with a
slight decline to 390kt in 1989 (Fig 2).
Flat stainless-steel production grew from 47kt in 1980 to 101kt in 1987, with a small slump to 94kt by 1989. Silicon steel output increased from 31kt to 96kt between 1980 and 1989 (Fig 3). The company also produced high carbon flat steel products, which were then used by the agricultural machinery industry (plow discs, for instance).
Throughout these two decades, Acesita heavily invested in expanding its role as a niche market supplier, all while maintaining a complex production structure, comprised of: a) two charcoal BFs (combining for 500kt/yr capacity) and one electric reduction furnace (50kt/yr); b) two BOFs (670kt/yr) and three EAFs (180kt); c) continuous and conventional caster (720kt); d) one Steckel mill (500kt/ yr), e) two Sendzimir mills for flat stainless steel (90kt/yr), one Sendzimir mill for silicon steel (100kt/yr), and three bar rolling mills (340kt/yr).
As a SOE, one of Acesita’s main goals was to substitute imports, predominantly focusing on high-value products, in this case. However, the company was privatised in 1992, as will be discussed in the next part of this article in the March edition of Steel Times International �
Fig 1. Acesita’s pig iron and crude steel production, 19721989 (kt)
Fig 2. Acesita’s special flats and special longs production, 1972-1989 (kt)
The Indian government has responsed to the issue of rising steel imports with an anti-dumping investigation, which has brought both praise and criticism from key players within the sector.
By Dilip Kumar Jha*
THE Indian government’s decision to initiate an anti-dumping investigation into rising steel imports from China has sparked a debate between upstream and downstream manufacturers. While primary producers are in favour of the move – citing protection of domestic production – engineering goods manufacturers oppose it, arguing it could lead to higher raw material prices and, therefore, cost uncompetitiveness. With both industries contributing significantly to the nation’s economy, the government finds itself walking a tightrope.
The issue
India is recognised as the second largest producer of primary steel, after China, with an annual production capacity of approximately 180Mt. Operating at a capacity utilisation rate of 81%, the country produced 142Mt of crude steel and 138.5Mt of finished steel in FY 2023-24, compared to a finished steel consumption of 136.25Mt, according to data from the Joint Plant Committee under the Union Ministry of Steel. This points to an oversupply of about 2Mt, limiting the scope for primary producers to enhance capacity utilisation.
Despite the surplus, finished steel imports from China have surged to a record 1.7Mt between April-October 2024, marking a 35.4% increase over the same period last year. Overall, India’s finished steel imports reached a seven-year high of 5.7Mt during this period, with China, South Korea, and Japan collectively accounting for 79%. To curb this influx, the steel ministry has
Source: Director General of Commercial Intelligence & Statistics
proposed a 25% safeguard duty or a similar import tax on flat steel imports for two years.
Support from primary producers
Primary steel producers have welcomed the proposed anti-dumping duty. JSW Group chairman Sajjan Jindal remarked, “Indian steel mills have been grappling with a higher influx of Chinese steel imports via the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) countries. Cheap imports have been suppressing domestic prices and eroding primary producers’ earnings. We are urging the government to prevent the circumvention of Chinese steel imports. While we have been patient with the steel ministry, we have yet to receive a response.”
T V Narendran, chief executive officer of Tata Steel added, “India’s steel imports from China are unfairly priced. If this continues, it could jeopardize the domestic
producers’ future investment plans in the steel industry. Chinese producers are able to sell steel at prices below cost, which constitutes unfair competition. Prolonged dumping could impact the investment plans of Indian steelmakers.”
Impact on downstream producers
Downstream producers, primarily micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) accounting for nearly 41% of India’s total steel output and employing over 1.5 million workers, claim they have lost about one-third of their production capacity due to cheap Chinese imports in the past six months. Alarmingly, China’s finished steel is sold in India at prices up to $70/tonne lower than market rates. Despite offering discounts, downstream producers have reported a 30-35% decline in turnover over the past six months.
The Indian Steel Association has
extended its support to primary producers, urging the government to implement proactive measures. In a presentation, the association highlighted, “Steel companies are struggling to expand due to profit margins shrinking by up to 90% this financial year. Rising imports at predatory prices and dwindling export opportunities threaten the survival of the domestic steel industry. Prices of hot-rolled coil (HRC) used in construction dropped to a three-year low earlier this year.”
Opposition from engineering goods manufacturers
Engineering goods manufacturers, who contribute around 3% to GDP and 40% to India’s manufacturing sector, have opposed the anti-dumping investigation. They argue that the proposed duty could disrupt the operations as they rely on cost-effective steel imports. “India’s engineering goods exporters have been facing challenges from global market slowdown. Any additional burden will make their products less competitive in the world market compared to rivals with more affordable steel prices.
Additionally, the proposed import duty increase on Chinese steel will have a cascading effect on input cost, eroding profits, and minimise pricing power in export markets,” said Pankaj Chadha, chairman of the Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC).
Ajay Sahai, director general of the Federation of Indian Export Organisation (FIEO) , cautioned, “The government must ensure that domestic steel producers do not raise their products’ prices, as any increase
Temperature profiling for Steel Reheat Applications
in raw material prices will affect valueadded steel products.” Similarly, S C Ralhan, chairman of the Hand Tool Association, warned, “MSMEs exporters from the engineering sector will have to shut down their shops as any additional duty will make their products prices uncompetitive in the overseas markets.’’
India’s engineering goods exports rose by 2.1% to $109.32 billion in the financial year 2023-24, with a target to reach $200 billion by 2030. These exports, which include machinery, equipment, and auto components, are highly price-sensitive. An import duty hike could weaken their position in key markets such as the United States and Europe.
Conclusion
While the anti-dumping investigation is underway, it will be difficult for the government to satisfy all stakeholders. Striking a balance between the demands of primary manufacturers and the concerns of downstream producers will require careful consideration to protect both economic interests and employment generation. �
Decarbonization – first things first
In the October 2024 issue of Steel Times International, I argued that we will have blast furnaces well after 2050 and that we must plan for decreasing GHG emissions from them. I ended by quoting Mark Twain stating: “The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and starting on the first one.” Is that what we are doing? By
Rutger Gyllenram*
“THE perfect is the enemy of the good.” Another quote. This time from the French philosopher François-Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire (1694-1778). In fact, he picked up this as an Italian proverb that has probably followed mankind since the dawn of civilization. You are so hungry for excellence that you disregard improvements that do not take you all the way to the end. The perfect can here be represented by the net zero goal and the good by an arbitrary improvement that does not lead all the way to net zero. A good example from our industry is the resistance from Non-Governmental Organizations, NGOs, and some politicians towards Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage, CCUS, that made advanced European decarbonization projects in the steel industry, short before implementation, to come to a halt.
The argument that CCUS makes fossil fuels legitimate is perhaps understandable but falls flat considering that we instead continue to run the blast furnaces, BFs, emitting CO2. Of course, we are hoping that they in the end will be replaced by reduction with hydrogen and smelting in electric arc furnaces, EAFs, all powered by low-emission electricity, but will that ever happen? Nobody knows, and in the meantime the managers are turned into lame ducks since an improvement in the existing process does not constitute a profitable investment “as the process may soon be shut down”.
Considering the perspective
Making a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study for a product is today the dominating method to assess its environmental impact on a number of areas like Global
Warming Potential (GWP) depletion of various resources etc. The outcome of an LCA study depends totally on how the
*CEO and founder, Kobolde & Partners
input data, the inventory, is selected. In Environmental Product Declarations, EPDs, that are published for products and that are mandated in EU legislation, like in Construction Product Regulation, CPR, a bookkeeping approach is used. That means that you look at (I) the actual impacts for the raw materials, (II) process data from the production process and (III) projected impacts from the use of the product and finally (IV) the deconstruction at end of life. As an alternative to bookkeeping, a consequential method can be used answering: “what is the overall consequence of using this resource for this product?” When decisions are made for an existing process route and the action has a minor impact on the outside world, the bookkeeping method is quite adequate, but for major changes like switching from ore-based production to scrap-based production the impact on supply and demand on the global scrap market is such that a consequential method should be preferred. Europe is today a net exporter of scrap and if we decide to close a large number of BFs and use the scrap ourselves we should consider both possible social consequences of a scrap shortage in countries we used to export scrap to and the difference in environmental performance between the ironmaking units supplying the iron needed to compensate for the resulting scrap deficit and the BFs that are closed. It might not be worse but the question must be asked before considering the transition as responsible and as a progress in abating climate change. Having said that, for normal decarbonization work I guess the bookkeeping method serves us well when
we make an attempt to break down the decarbonization complexity.
Starting with scope 3: upstream and downstream emissions
1) Abating methane emissions: A steelmaker can lower the GWP value by, in the short term, selecting suppliers with low emissions, and in the long term put pressure on all suppliers to decrease their emissions. In recent years the focus has been on the methane leakage from coal mining and natural gas extraction and this might be one of the tasks with the highest success factor meaning that a small improvement has a big impact on the GWP for the produced steel. It is said that half of the natural gas leakages in the world can be avoided while making a profit from a higher gas yield. For coal it might be trickier but just extracting and burning the methane from the air ventilated from a coal mine improves the impact value.
2) Abating mining emissions: When it comes to metal mining, our studies at Kobolde on ferro alloys show that the main source for emissions is often diesel used for transport of ore before processing. Electrification has proven a solution in many mines, provided available low-emission electricity. Also, the ore properties are of importance for the processing so evidently different mines have different possibilities to decrease the GWP, however, pressure from steelmakers on mines and alloy producers to decarbonize is essential to make changes happen.
3) Promoting circularity: Finally, recycling steel in a way where the economic and environmental values of both iron and alloys are maintained provides a way to lower the GWP for a product. To preserve
lose half of the ferritic steel volume to the non-alloyed scrap flow where most of the alloys become tramp elements. This may be avoided if products containing ferritic steel are scrapped according to certain recycling procedures.
Looking at scope 2: electricity
4) Decreasing the use: The obvious task here is to reduce losses and improve the energy efficiency in existing processes that use electricity. Easy-to-measure and followup are probably already on top of the steelmaker’s to do list.
the metal value in a product to the next product lifecycle, we need to look at the entire chain from product design through deconstruction, recycling and steel and metal production. For the steel customer producing a product, it means providing information on how to recycle it, and for the steelmaker it means having to deal with much more complex scrap flows and smaller lots. In between, the recycler needs to create a logistic web where the right scrapped product goes to the right recycler and the right scrap quality goes to the right steelmaker. For example, today we
5) Selecting the provider: When it comes to decreasing electricity, GWP by choosing the electricity provider it becomes trickier in Europe. Whereas some European standards state that you can use the GWP of a certain provider if you can show that you are directly connected but otherwise use the country average, some countries suggest that an EU average should be used in the entire union. Building your own solar or wind plant would then probably be the only choice to lower the GWP.
When it comes to decreasing electricity consumption, understanding the potential for global warming simply by choosing the electricity provider can be challenging in Europe. While some European standards state that you can use the GWP of a specific provider if you can show that you are directly connected, the other alternative is to rely upon the country average. Some countries suggest that an EU average should be used across the EU. Building your own solar or wind plant would then probably be the only way to lower the GWP.
6) Balancing the energy types: Having a high electricity GWP for the country, the balance between use of electricity and use of fossil fuels becomes an interesting task. Such a study would most likely result in mothballing plans for EAFs and keeping BFs in service due to their higher energy efficiency. On the other hand, having a low electricity GWP has, for example, has led to Swedish steelmaker Ovako replacing LPG with hydrogen for its reheat furnaces.
Taking on scope 1: direct emissions from the processes
Well, this is what the debate has focused on for the last decades, the direct emissions from the iron and steel making processes. I choose to describe them as
‘implementation of disruptive technology characterised by high risk, impact and pace addressing an early-adaptor customer base accepting a higher price and evolutionary transition tasks characterised by medium risk, impact and pace, addressing an existing price-sensitive customer base. With risk I mean the technology risk that the project will not meet the goals set, with impact the disruptive effect it has on raw material markets and with pace the speed at which the net zero target is approached.
7) New principles: The most drastic way to work with emissions from the process is to invent a completely new process based on new principles. Molten Oxide Electrolysis, MOE, is such a process where molten iron oxide is reduced in an electrolysis cell creating a completely new supply chain and production environment. It will probably start as niche production for alloys and perhaps for special products where the process offers advantages. Reaching that stage who knows what will happen? MOE is sometimes thought of as a process that could deliver substantial amounts of net zero steel in the next couple of decades –but that is a bet with high stakes.
8) Radical redesign: Concepts where existing processes have been radically redesigned in order to decrease GWP substantially have been developed over recent decades. For processes using fossil fuels, deploying CCUS is the only way to reach net zero. A first example is the Oxygen Blast Furnace with Top Gas Recycling and a CO2 stream ready for CCS. It was tested in the ULCOS project and was unfortunately never tested in full scale as originally planned. A second example is redesigning the reforming and gas heating systems in direct reduction plants using natural gas. By excluding steps where top gas is burned with air, a CO2 stream suitable for CCS can be obtained. A more radical change is to substitute the reformed natural gas which is a mix of CO and H2 with pure H2 giving a top gas with H2 and H2O. Direct reduction with 100% hydrogen has been tested in pilot scale in the Hybrit project with reported good results on DRI quality. MIDREX has its own version called MIDREXH2 which is due to be operational in a 2Mt/ yr scale at the Stegra (formerly
H2 Green Steel) plant in Boden, Sweden, in a couple of years. Finally producing a reduction gas from biomass is suggested in the FerroSilva project where capturing the biogenic CO2 may create what is called a carbon sink. The redesigned processes above differ in choice of means but all aim to provide a ready-to-use process reaching net zero emissions immediately. Furthermore, they are all disruptive in that they have high demands on infrastructure for CCS, electricity or transport of biomass with a significant impact on these markets. The technical risk lies in the fact that none of them has been tested in full scale and they are in many ways just ideas.
9) Proven replacements: Once a process or process line is proven and can be bought off the shelf, older technology can be replaced or outcompeted by new, proven technology with better performance and lower GWP. As an example, we can look at direct reduction plants using natural gas and replacing or competing with older blast furnaces facilities.
10) Incremental improvements: In the end, this is the normal way the industry develops over time with minor well-controlled changes that improve performance. In the case of decarbonisation, charging Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) or Hot Briquetted Iron (HBI) and biocoke in the BF, increasing the H2 ratio in the reformed natural gas in a DRfurnace, injecting biocarbon in the EAF and improving reheat furnaces by replacing fossil fuels with electric heating or hydrogen may all be considered as improvements that lower the GWP in steel. However, solutions from the radical redesign projects mentioned above may end up as toolboxes for improvements of a not-so-disruptive character and BF-plants may largely depend upon them if new designs can be implemented stepwise in the normal BF revamp cycle when the technology matures.
Is the net zero target the enemy of incremental improvements? It may depend on how you perceive it. If you see it as a political goal that will be implemented in the short term at any cost, it probably creates a certain sense of resignation. “Why invest in facilities that will be closed anyway?” If, on the other hand, you see it as a distant goal and where it is the path that is important, where every step counts, then it doesn’t have to be so bad. Hopefully we are in a period of sobering up. New technology will come in the long term but it is not here yet. We need to do what we can with what we have and we cannot yet completely phase out fossil fuels. But we need to use them wisely –without dogmas and without goals based on wishful thinking. Decarbonising steel production is a tiring job that is far from the glamour of the headlines and the heroic reports of the newspapers. It is simply ordinary industrial development work that needs reasonable conditions to succeed. �
Rutger Gyllenram is a Swedish metallurgist, founder and CEO of Kobolde & Partners AB and together with Dr Peter Samuelsson founder of FerroSilva AB.
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Are GASSA and a US CBAM dead under Trump 2.0?
As the US prepares for the Trump Administration, many questions loom on
what the future holds for
US trade policy. By
Matthew Groch*
IN the realm of international trade and climate policy, 2023 marked a year of both promise and uncertainty for the United States. Two significant initiatives, the Global Arrangement on Sustainable Steel and Aluminum (GASSA) and the push for a US Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), symbolized the growing intersection of economic competitiveness and environmental sustainability. Both policies represent significant convergences of trade and climate policy, but their prospects in 2025 depend heavily on political priorities, international dynamics, and the specific economic strategies pursued by the incoming administration.
In 2023, there was renewed optimism that the US was on the verge of substantial breakthroughs with policies at the intersection of climate and trade. Since late 2021, the EU and US had been negotiating the GASSA and momentum was building for both sides to an agreement before the October 2023 deadline. The highly ambitious GASSA aimed to address global steel and aluminium overcapacity and encourage environmentally sustainable practices. However, in the fall of 2023, the talks collapsed unexpectedly, despite progress on several issues.
In December of 2023, the US Trade Representative (USTR) and the European Commission announced an agreement that extends the suspension of the Section
232 tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from the EU into the US market for 15 months. With the suspension extended to 31 March 2025, negotiators have additional time to work out an agreement on GASSA. However, with Trump’s win in November, it’s hard to see an agreement on GASSA as an immediate priority for the administration. As noted by Kevin Dempsey, president and CEO of the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI):
“It is difficult to see how GASSA gets resurrected at this point. The EU was unwilling to show the flexibility needed to develop an approach on imposing tariffs on higher emissions steel imports that worked for both the US and the EU. We believe that a top priority of the incoming administration will be to use trade enforcement measures, including tariffs, to bolster domestic manufacturing. That will include measures regarding steel and aluminium – in particular the continuation of the Section 232 tariffs. If the EU follows through on its threat to impose retaliatory tariffs on US exports at the end of March, the new administration will be forced to reevaluate whether the current tariff-rate quota arrangement for EU exports should be revoked and replaced by traditional tariffs.”
The path to a sustainable and cooperative steel trade policy between the US and EU remains fraught with challenges
and it appears that GASSA missed its moment in October of 2023. As noted by Dr. Todd Tucker of the Roosevelt Institute, “The effective collapse of the talks was surprising. Given the political mandate, policy feasibility and EU accommodations, a deal could have certainly been landed.”
With President-elect Trump announcing plans to expand current tariffs to 60% on imports from China and 10% to 20% from the EU and other trading partners, it is clear that the next administration aims to move quickly with tariffs, even with allies.
Another bright spot at the intersection of climate and trade in 2023 was the growing consensus between Democrats and Republicans on the need for a US version of a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). In the 118th Congress, four separate bills were introduced including bi-partisan bills in both the US House and Senate. These policies are essential to combating climate change and can drive down emissions while encouraging the onshoring of manufacturing jobs. As noted by Dr. Catherine Wolfram, professor of energy economics at the MIT Sloan School of Management and former deputy assistant secretary for climate and energy economics at the US Treasury, “If the US manages to implement a carbon price, the CBAM momentum will be even more powerful. The US is such a big consumer in the world economy, it will
really turbocharge this momentum. If the US doesn’t have a carbon price, the momentum is still going to be there, the US just isn’t going to be participating in it. There will be decisions made and technical details that US companies won’t be able to participate in. I see that as a real drawback.”
The first bill, the Providing Reliable, Objective, Verifiable Emissions Intensity Act or PROVE IT Act, was introduced by Senators Chris Coons (D-DE) and Kevin Cramer (R-NE) with 11 co-sponsors including Sens. Angus King (I-ME), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), John Hickenlooper (DCO), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), and Mark Kelly (D-AZ). The PROVE IT Act directs the US Department of Energy (DOE) to measure and report the emissions intensity of nearly two dozen key products across major economies, emphasizing transparency in global emissions data. The act would cover three categories: energy-intensive products (e.g., steel, aluminium, cement), fuels (e.g., natural gas, biofuels), and goods essential for decarbonization (e.g., EV batteries, wind turbines). DOE will publish findings on these products’ emissions intensities in the US and globally, prioritizing data availability and significant trading partners. Ultimately, the PROVE IT Act enhances global accountability and encourages cleaner production methods worldwide, ensuring US products are treated fairly in global markets while promoting decarbonization. The PROVE IT Act passed the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee with a bipartisan majority vote of 14-5 but has not made its way to the Senate floor for a full vote.
The Foreign Pollution Fee Act (FPFA), was introduced in November 2023 by Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and co-sponsored by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). The bill would create a US carbon border adjustment mechanism aimed at reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with imported goods. The FPFA targets imports that are more carbon-intensive than equivalent domestically produced goods. Covered products include aluminium, iron and steel, natural gas, petroleum products, plastics, critical minerals, cement, and renewable energy components. The fees are calculated as a percentage of the imported product’s dollar value, determined by the difference in GHG intensity between US and foreign production. While the FPFA aims to protect US industries from
unfair competition and encourage global decarbonization, its focus on imports limits its impact on domestic emissions.
In December of 2023, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-CT) along with four other Democratic senators introduced the Clean Competition Act (CCA). The act would be a significant shift in US climate policy aimed at reducing carbon emissions from the manufacturing sector while fostering global competitiveness. The CCA would amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 and introduce a carbon border adjustment, requiring manufacturers to disclose their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and imposing fees on high-emission imports. Unlike the FPFA, a portion of border fee revenues under CCA will fund climate initiatives, supporting the transition to a sustainable industrial future. As noted by Sen. Whitehouse at an event at Harvard University in 2024, “If we want a path to climate safety, it’s going to require us to
do what is economically and morally right, which is to price carbon pollution.”
Also in December of 2023, Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Salud Carbajal (D-CA) reintroduced the MARKET CHOICE Act. The bipartisan proposal addresses GHG emissions through comprehensive carbon pricing while funding infrastructure and climate resilience. The act replaces federal motor vehicle and aviation fuel taxes with a tax on GHG emissions. The tax would apply to fossil fuel producers, industrial facility operators, and importers of GHG-intensive goods, covering sectors like aluminium, steel, cement, and petrochemicals.
While proposals for a US CBAM have picked up in the 118th Congress, the question remains will there be any appetite for a carbon pollution mechanism under the Trump administration? According to Dempsey of AISI:
“Yes, I think there is a possibility that a Republican-led effort to impose a new
border fee based on carbon emissions intensity could become law if the incoming administration expresses its support for this legislation. Senator Cassidy is currently revising his bill based on input from other Republican Senators and external stakeholders. My understanding is that he intends to reintroduce the legislation early in the new Congress. I think the key to whether the bill can obtain sufficient support for passage is whether the new version of the bill applies broadly to dirty imports from all countries or not. A bill riddled with loopholes won’t make it.”
Similarly, Lori Wallach, director of ReThink Trade, also believes there has been a paradigm shift on border adjustment mechanisms:
“To the extent there is a transpartisan commitment for both domestic resiliency and national security of having steel and other essential materials, then a border domestic border charge is one of the only ways you are going to countervail what is effectively dumping on the environment. Without internalizing those differentials in cost, whatever you think about the climate issues, the industry here has a very difficult road ahead. If you look from a purely supply chain manufacturing cost analysis, you are going to have to have something like a CBAM American style, so we can produce these critical materials for our infrastructure, domestic resiliency, and national security. Absent of some kind of border equalization you are dooming the domestic industry to an impossible future of dumping of environmental costs from producers in other countries who will end up carbon dumping and externalizing environmental costs that will make their products unfairly cheap like steel to undercut domestic production.”
The future of climate-focused trade policies like GASSA and a US CBAM remains uncertain as the US transitions to a new administration under Donald Trump. As global markets increasingly prioritize decarbonization, the US faces a choice: lead in shaping sustainable trade practices or risk marginalization in this evolving landscape. While 2023 witnessed significant progress in aligning economic and environmental objectives, the collapse of GASSA negotiations and the election of Donald Trump and his tariff-heavy trade agenda will certainly complicate efforts for a cohesive US trade and climate policy in 2025 and beyond. �
A double-edged sword
While somewhat of a mixed bag, the US election resulting in a second presidential term for Donald Trump is perceived as being generally positive for the domestic steel market. However, this is based upon a number of assumptions about what he will actually do once he takes office.
By Myra Pinkham*
KEVIN Dempsey, president and chief executive officer of the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI), said that one of the more defining assumptions of Trump’s political approach is that the new administration will take a very businessfriendly approach to governance, one that will be generally positive for the US steel industry, especially given that steel had been front and centre during Trump’s presidential campaign.
Philip Bell, president of the Steel Manufacturers Association (SMA), agreed, stating that due to the fact that the US steel industry had been high priority for Trump during his first presidential term, there is every reason to believe that will continue to be the case this time around.
However, according to senior equity research analyst for KeyBanc Capital Markets, Philip Gibbs, there continues to be a lot of speculation as to the impact upon the industry, based largely upon things
that Trump had said when he was on the campaign trail and shortly thereafter as opposed to having any policies that are set in stone. “Nevertheless, that speculation has begun to drive some of the psychology and the behaviours of the US steel market,” he said.
“It will be interesting to see how things actually develop,” Ryan McKinley, a senior steel analyst for CRU, said. “But we need to see the actual roll-out of the new administration’s policies before we know for sure whether they will be positive or negative for business in general, including the steel industry,” he said.
McKinley said that while it is certain that there will be some sort of increase in import tariffs, there have been some rumblings that the Trump administration could possibly rescind some of the yet unspent incentives in such recently passed legislation as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act (IIJA)
*North America correspondent, Steel Times International
and the CHIPS & Science Act – particularly incentives relating to the green energy sector.
Many companies – including steelmakers and steel end-users – have been looking at what they might need to do should there be negative consequences to any new or changed policies under the new administration, Felix Bello, a North American steel analyst for Fastmarkets, noted.
He pointed out that the magnitude of the impact – whether positive or negative – will not only depend upon the nature of the changes, but the speed that they go into effect. Bello explained that companies will be able to make any necessary changes if they have enough lead time, but that is difficult to do if the changes occur overnight, which he said might be the case – since during Trump’s first term, most of his decisions were made, and became effective, on the fly.
Bello said that the same is likely to be true this time, given that it appears that Trump favours the element of surprise.
Clearly a lot of the attention that has been paid to the incoming administration has been centred upon changes that Trump is expected to make related to the nation’s trade policy, particularly import tariffs, but that isn’t the only way that it is expected to have an impact upon the US steel industry.
SMA’s Bell said one thing that could make the new administration more business friendly is the expectation that there will likely be an emphasis upon regulatory frameworks that are reasonable and that take their economic impacts more into account.
Dempsey agreed, explaining, “One thing that we had been concerned about over the past year was that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued several proposed new rules that would impose additional costs upon US steelmakers,” noting that these proposed regulations are currently at various stages of adoption with some being in the courts for review.
This, he pointed out, includes a new particulate matter standard that is so low that it would make it very difficult to invest in new facilities or to upgrade existing facilities, as well as certain things that could adversely affect many steel end-use markets like the construction and automotive
sectors. “But I believe that there is a good chance that that Trump administration will review, revisit and hopefully make some adjustments to those regulations to ensure that there is a better balance.”
But KeyBanc’s Gibbs noted that in the name of deregulation, Trump has also talked about potentially withdrawing some of the credits and subsidies for electric vehicles (EVs) and wind, solar and other alternative energy incentives that were in recently passed legislation, which could adversely affect steel demand. He, however, pointed out that it remains uncertain if Trump will actually enact this and to what degree.
“I also think that we will see a tax policy that will encourage business growth,” Bell said, noting that one ingredient of that will be the ability to get Congress to work with the White House to extend the 2017 tax cuts which are scheduled to expire at the end of 2025.
Gibbs said that could be significant given that lower corporate taxes should allow companies to invest more in their businesses and pay their employees more at a time when inflation could increase.
“We are hoping to see certain tax legislation that could be good for the overall US economy,” Dempsey said, with provisions that will not only boost steel production investments, but that will provide a boost for all sectors of the US economy, including all manufacturing sectors. “And that is good for steel given how important steel is for most of those sectors,” he said.
“But one thing that is certain, is that Trump will be imposing new tariffs on imports and that they will likely have an impact on steel,” McKinley declared.
It is, however, uncertain whether the new administration’s tariffs and other elements of its trade policy will be quite as stringent as those currently being floated and what its impact upon the steel industry will be.
Dempsey noted that being aggressive on trade policies is nothing new for Trump, pointing out that it was during his first term that the Section 232 tariffs upon steel and aluminium were put into place. He also said that he believes that the new administration could also further strengthen traditional trade remedy laws, such as antidumping and countervailing duty laws.
“Actually, tariffs and other moves to level the playing field have more bipartisan support than many people realize,”
Bell said, as is evidenced by the Biden administration continuing the Section 232 tariffs and increasing some other tariffs, including Section 302 tariffs on Chinese imports.
“One big question is how much additional tariffs could be added without adversely affecting demand growth,” given that tariffs tend to be inflationary in nature, Gibbs pointed out. But McKinley maintained that while prices could jump up initially upon the institution of new tariffs, they generally fall back again within a quarter or a couple of quarters due to lower consumer demand.
Bell admitted that the planned 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports was a little surprising, although he maintained that there is a lot of illegally traded, subsidized and high-emission steel finding its ways into products imported into the US by its USMCA partners. In fact, he said that in 2023, over 50% of Mexican steel imports didn’t list a country of origin, so it is uncertain if that steel was melted and poured in Mexico or in China or South Korea or another country. These tariffs could be consequential, Fastmarkets’ Bello said, given that Canada and Mexico are the USA’s largest trading partners.
Trump has also announced plans for an additional 10% tariff on top of existing tariffs for all products imported from China and has threatened up to 100% tariffs on the BRICS nations who have threatened to undermine the value of the US dollar.
There is, however, no guarantee that these proposed tariffs will actually go into effect, particularly at these levels, Bello said. “It is more likely that they are more an opening gambit to start negotiations.”
Others agreed. “It is very common in politics to use things as negotiating tools,” SMA’s Bell said. “So, we will have to take a wait and see how far Trump’s tariffs will extend and how high they will actually be. But if this works in getting people to the table to end market-distorting trade practices, it will be well worth it,” he declared.
But the inflationary aspect of tariffs can’t be ignored, Kim Leppold, head of steel research at Fastmarkets, said. “While Trump has promised that he was going to make China and other countries pay, it is really the manufacturers and, therefore, the consumers who will be paying more if tariffs on steel-containing products increase.
At the same time, Gibbs said that it isn’t guaranteed that the new tariffs will immediately result in a big pickup in reshoring of manufacturing. “There is a reason why we buy things that we need from overseas – in many cases because of the cost and the way that supply chains are set up,” he said, adding that reshoring doesn’t happen overnight and that any supply chain dislocation could also be inflationary.
Another question is what impact the new administration will have upon green steelmaking and pushes for greater sustainability, especially given that during his first term Trump pulled the US out of the Paris Accord and has made comments such as ‘Drill Baby, Drill’ – even though the US is already the largest oil producer.
Leppold pointed out that the renewable energy market could be especially impacted given its need for government support and Trump’s previously stated policies, which would involve rolling back some of the incentives for renewable project investment in recently passed legislation.
But while some industry observers say
that there has been some level of reluctance for consumers to pay a green steel premium, Bell said that he believes that the Trump administration will continue upon the pathway of energy independence by taking an all-of-the-above energy approach, embracing renewable energy, fossil fuels, nuclear and hydrogen, as long as there is a regulatory framework that is reasonable and certain.
While the short-term impact of the election remains somewhat unclear at this time, Gibbs said that in the mid- to longerterm, once imports have whittled down a
Smart temperature measurement solutions for the steel industry
bit, the new administration could result in a more competitive domestic steel industry.
Dempsey agreed, stating that assuming that the new administration focuses on strong trade enforcement, keeps tax rates down, re-establishes incentives for new business investment and has a more business-friendly approach to government regulation, that should spur US steel demand and investment growth.
That said, McKinley maintained that it isn’t so clear cut. “It could be a doubleedged sword for steel, depending upon how Trump’s policies actually shape up.” �
From inevitable to inexorable
Entering 2025, the steel industry is faced with a number of opportunities, as well as potential stumbling blocks. In order to reach urgent decarbonization requirements for a sustainable future, change is required – at a rapid pace. By Caroline Ashley*
JANUARY is a time for ambition and optimism, so let’s paint a positive picture of the steel decarbonization pathway in 2025 with three bold hopes.
(1) By the end of the year, China and MENA are jostling for position as leaders in the green transition, while the EU, fortified by regulatory progress, is reclaiming its position.
(2) Fortescue has established its lead in green iron exports, with others in Australia, Canada, Brazil and beyond realising they need to catch up.
(3) Investment in blast furnaces gets contested worldwide, including in India, where firmer government policy shifts investor focus and timelines.
Such a rosy picture may feel particularly out of place at a time when ‘crisis’ is the dominant conversation in the industry, and doom is the sentiment among climate watchers. Undoubtedly right now, challenges are huge. But the foundations for these shifts already exist, and signals of change were apparent in 2024. This is a turbulent moment in the iron and steel industry, and from this turbulence, many different possibilities are present as we enter 2025. Looking at the big picture, we know the steel industry is totally off-track from the decarbonization pathway that is needed to cut emissions in line with the 1.5˚C target for climate stability. Within that big picture, there are also signals of what could help set that right.
Undoubtedly, 2024 was dominated by excess capacity in China, leading to double digit increases in exports to every region, with shrinking margins, sales and output for many companies. While this is an immediate market issue, it gets tangled with long-term decarbonization, as it drives executive attention and government dialogue away from long-term
transformation to short-term survival. With the re-election of Donald Trump to the White House, the market trend of excess capacity and political trend of populism will coalesce around trade battles in 2025. Just how trade measures will intertwine with definitions of green steel is far less certain. From a climate lens, it is critical that trade negotiations promote green iron and green steel and don’t increase national autarky in steel.
2025 starts with a backlog of bad decarbonization news from the last quarter of 2024, including ArcelorMittal backtracking on their entire fleet of decarbonization projects in Europe, other steelmakers wobbling on their plans (wobbles that were then denied, both in the US and Germany), new blast furnaces built and announced, high energy prices and low green hydrogen availability becoming structural obstacles in many producing countries, and political pushback
*Director, SteelWatch
on green industry measures in the US and EU. Meanwhile, the impacts of the climate crisis are already accelerating around us, with much more yet to come.
Nevertheless, steel decarbonization has begun and 2025 could see increased momentum from multiple angles. This is what progress might look like:
Lower and cleaner production in China
A remarkable fact went generally unremarked in 2024. As far as we know – no new coal-based steelmaking facilities were approved in China during 2024. From January to June, only EAFs were approved, marking the first half year with no coalbased basic oxygen furnace approvals. Since then, policy direction has continued with August seeing suspension of the steel capacity replacement policy altogether.
Meanwhile, DRI construction is underway and China’s EAF share of production in 2025 is estimated to rise sharply. More
Fortescue’s battery electric haul truck prototype at its Australian Green Energy Hub
than US$7 billion has been invested into hydrogen-based steelmaking, with He Steel (a 1.2Mt DRI pilot), Baowu Steel, Jinnan Steel, and several others implementing successful pilots. This pipeline suggests ‘China should be on track to deliver world leading production volumes of 15-20Mt/yr of low carbon primary steel by 2030’.
Will China lead in green steel production?
As China has probably passed peak total steel production ahead of its own schedule,
the question now is whether it surges into leadership in green steel.
Cracking the code of green iron shipments
At SteelWatch we are repeatedly told that the biggest barrier to green hydrogen-based DRI in Europe, the USA, Japan, South Korea, India and more is the lack of affordable green hydrogen and the renewable energy it duly requires. So, logic dictates that reducing iron ore where renewable energy is plentiful and shipping it as hot briquetted
iron (HBI) to steelmaking plants is a better use of precious renewables. Practical problems abound, from the technical (ore quality) to the political (transitioning jobs). But 2025 looks set for progress.
In mid-2024, Fortescue, the world’s fourth largest miner, set the target of supplying 100Mt/yr of green iron metal to China, during a visit by the Chinese Premier to Perth. The green hydrogen plant has been commissioned, August saw the start of construction of the Green Metal Project in Pilbara, a pilot green iron project, with production anticipated to start in 2025.
We have sat opposite steelmaking giants who tell us that the iron content challenge of Australian iron ore will take decades to solve, so they cannot plan for buying or producing green HBI for now. It’s as if innovation had not yet been invented. The great majority of Fortescue’s current production is low-grade iron ore, so progress on its ambition will mean finding ways to use low-grade ore in DRI-based steelmaking – and that will have global ramifications.
Meanwhile, the first deals are being sealed. In one of the first examples of crossocean and cross-company trade, German producer of autoparts, Benteler, signed an offtake agreement for 0.2Mt/yr of green hot briquetted iron (HBI) with HyIron, a new company building an H2-DRI plant
Left: India’s Union Minister of Steel and Heavy Industries, Shri HD Kumaraswamy, releases India’s Green Steel Taxonomy press release, December 2024
Front right: Indian Green Taxonomy (in Hindi), December 2024. Top right: a copy of the Indian Government’s Greening the Steel Sector in India Roadmap and Action Plan, September 2024.
in Namibia, due for operations in early 2025. I happened to drive past Arandis, the pit-stop town near HyIron’s plant in late 2023. In fact, I broke down there, and was concerned about potentially being stranded days not hours in a remote dusty place. Seeing coverage of HyIron’s first installation today is a great reminder that future industry can emerge from all kinds of places, not just the ones that dominate industry headlines today.
The markets and the mining companies already know that the race for DRI-grade ore is on. Both Vale and Anglo American highlighted how they are responding to an expected long-term rise in demand for DRgrade ore, while demand for blast furnacegrade has entered long-term decline.
MENA emergence
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region already has four decades of experience in iron making with DRI technology. It is projected to hold over a third of global DRI capacity by 2030, nearly four times that of the EU.
Announcements and developments are bubbling in MENA and we can expect more in 2025. Some investments are huge. The Turkish steelmaker Tosyali Holding signed an agreement to build the world’s largest DRI complex together with the Libyan United Steel Company, in July last year. The Libyan-based plant will produce HBI for its neighbours and the EU – initially with fossil gas, indicated to transition to hydrogen over time.
Though most MENA projects are still dominated by fossil-gas use, a pilot by EMSTEEL and Asdar is already making steel with green hydrogen DRI in Abu Dhabi, and there is a clear focus on the installation of hydrogen-ready technologies across projects.
The uptick in momentum for green hydrogen DRI in MENA creates the possibility of competition for leadership in the green iron race.
Early movement in India
India is home to the dirtiest and fastest growing coal-based steel production fleet, baking in emissions for decades to come, and that remains a huge challenge for the carbon footprint of steel. Last month, Global Energy Monitor flagged that the surge in coal-based steelmaking threatens the country’s net zero target, even though it is set only for 2070.
Nonetheless, we are also seeing early movements on green steel. In September, the Indian government produced a roadmap to help shape the steel industry’s future. That was followed by a Green Steel Taxonomy in December, setting out a starrating system to guide public procurement. The definitions of green steel are not strict – far less ambitious than we would like –but the plan enables a ratchet effect with a three-year review and will focus company minds and measurement on emissions.
The government plans to follow this up with a National Mission for Green Steel, which will more explicitly set out the policy and financial support available, from supporting renewables uptake in the steel sector, to further demonstrating low-emission technologies. There are now three known DRI demonstration plants blending green hydrogen and fossil gas in India, being taken forward by companies including JSW, JSPL and Matrix Gas and Renewables.
H2-DRI goes global
This is the year to finally kill the argument that H2-DRI is ‘just a Swedish thing’. While Stegra’s plant at Boden is rising in the snow, closing in on production in 2026, the company has announced Portugal as top of their scale-up list. The Hybrit consortium continues in Sweden, while SSAB chose Mississippi for their next Hybrit project (with backing from the US government to be approved). Meanwhile in Germany, both Salzgitter and thyssenkrupp have already broken ground at brownfield sites for their own H2-DRI. There are sites in China, Australia, MENA, India (as indicated above)
for H2DRI. Delays and bumps are likely, but the trend is global.
Challenges to blast furnaces and metallurgical coal
It’s almost a year since Dutch bank, the ING Group became the first major bank to end dedicated finance for new unabated steel blast furnaces, and for the extension of existing blast furnaces. In addition, ING no longer finances new metallurgical coal mines or the expansion of existing ones. ING has not yet been followed by a stampede. It is totally normal for financial institutions to have exclusions on financing coal – but so far that has meant thermal coal. We hear more banks and investors building their understanding of metallurgical coal and why they need to extend their exclusionary policies.
Of course, none of this happens without effort. Civil society voices opposing dirty coal-based steelmaking and motivating ambitious policies are only getting louder. Companies cannot simply sit back and leave others to drive change. They must step up to their responsibilities both to protect the next generation’s climate and to reshape their business into the competitive firm of the future. Visionary leadership is essential.
I am constantly told that everyone in the steel industry accepts that decarbonization is essential. The question is not ‘whether’ but ‘how.’ From a climate lens, the shift is inevitable, the question is simply whether it will be fast enough to address catastrophic climate change. 2025 needs to be – and could well be – the year when decarbonization shifts from being inevitable to inexorable. �
Arandis, town near Oshivela and HyIron
Europe’s green shift: carbon capture is not the answer
With two European steelmakers slowing down their respective investments in decarbonization production, questions remain as to the most effective mechanisms through which to hit crucial sustainability targets.
By Simon Nicholas*
THE steel technology transition away from coal has accelerated in recent years, with Europe leading the way. However, as 2024 draws to a close, two of Europe’s leading steelmakers appear to be slowing their planned shift to lower emissions technology.
This is partly because the cost of green hydrogen production hasn’t declined as fast as over-optimistic forecasts suggested it would. Despite this, investors and governments should question any steelmaker suggesting that carbon capture and storage (CCS) will play a meaningful role in decarbonizing steel.
Transition slowing?
In November, Thyssenkrupp announced it would cut 11,000 jobs at its steel unit as it struggles amid global overcapacity and the resultant increase in cheap steel imports from China. Over the past two years, Thyssenkrupp has written down the value of its steel unit by €3 billion.
Thyssenkrupp Steel states that it ‘remains committed to the green transformation and carbon-neutral steel production’ and that its under-construction direct reduced iron (DRI) plant – which is intended to eventually run on hydrogen – will be completed.
Yet, it seems that the company’s overall DRI ambition has been scaled back. In 2022, Thyssenkrupp suggested that all four blast furnaces at its Duisburg site would be
progressively replaced with four DRI plants. Now the company states that the first DRI plant will replace two blast furnaces, while another may be replaced by an electric arc furnace (EAF) at some point in the future.
Also in November, ArcelorMittal confirmed what had already been rumoured – that it was delaying final investment decisions (FID) across its portfolio of decarbonization projects. This includes a number of hydrogen-ready DRI plants planned to replace blast furnaces.
It also seems likely ArcelorMittal will revise down its 2030 emissions intensity targets.
ArcelorMittal states that it ‘remains committed to all technologies that offer the potential to take steelmaking to near-zero.’
This includes carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS), although like green hydrogen, this technology is likely to only make a meaningful difference after 2030. It already has one industrial scale CCU facility operational at its plant in Gent, Belgium, and a further two pilot projects underway in Gent.
This ‘industrial scale’ CCU (carbon capture and utilisation) facility is the Steelanol project, which captures less than 2% of the Gent plant’s annual emissions.
The very low capture rate of the Steelanol CCU project helps illustrate why steelmakers that are planning or implementing low-carbon technology have turned to hydrogen-ready DRI instead of carbon
capture. The 2030 pipeline of commercialscale, low-carbon steel capacity is dominated by DRI projects totalling almost 100Mt/yr, according to Agora Industry. Commercial-scale CCS projects remain stuck on 1Mt/yr.
Some of the early hype surrounding green hydrogen is rightfully being questioned. In some ways it is unsurprising that steelmakers are rethinking their timetables. But in the medium-to-long-term, green hydrogen-based DRI is far more likely to reduce steel emissions than CCS.
Green hydrogen-based DRI will outcompete CCS on performance and cost.
CCS has a poor track record in all sectors where it has been applied with no signs of this changing on the horizon as the latest performance results from the world’s largest CCS project attest.
The Gorgon CCS project in Western Australia captures CO2 that is mixed with extracted natural gas for storage underground. CO2 injection started in August 2019 – 3½ years late.
The plant was approved on the condition that it injected 80% of captured CO2 underground but its performance is well below this level and getting worse. In recent years, it has injected about one-third of captured CO2, and in the most recently released performance results, this dropped further to 30%. Any captured CO2 not injected is vented into the atmosphere.
*Lead analyst – global steel, Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA)
captures about 25% of the DRI-based steel plant’s overall emissions.
For the steel industry, CCS faces the same issues experienced in other sectors with
Gorgon isn’t the only flagship CCS project to reveal worsening performance. Oil and gas producer Equinor recently admitted the performance of its flagship Sleipner CCS project had been significantly over-reported due to faulty monitoring equipment. Advocates of CCS often point to Sleipner as proof of CCS’s technical feasibility. In fact, the project further highlights the risks associated with carbon capture implementation.
Low capture rates are often glossed over. The world’s only operational CCS plant for steelmaking – the Al Reyadah CCS project in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – only
the added difficulty that an integrated, coal-based steel plant has several sources of carbon emissions. There are still no commercial-scale CCS plants for blast furnace-based steelmaking in operation anywhere in the world.
There is also the high cost of transporting captured carbon, questions over where carbon will be stored and uncertainty over the long-term effectiveness of underground storage.
Each carbon storage project faces different geological conditions and issues, making it difficult to take any learnings from one project to the next. This limits the potential for cost reductions.
The cost of CCS remains high despite decades of attempted deployment. Green
hydrogen is expensive but the cost has a much better chance of declining through economies of scale and the falling cost of renewable energy.
Furthermore, installing CCS at steel plants does nothing to tackle methane emissions from metallurgical coalmines that supply blast furnace-based steel plants. In 2024, the scale of the methane emissions issue has become more apparent. In Australia –the world’s largest exporter of metallurgical coal – a new online methane emissions tool (Open Methane) was released by the Superpower Institute in October. Initial results suggest Australia’s methane emissions may be far higher than official figures.
IEEFA is far from the only organisation sceptical of the role CCS will play in steel decarbonization. A CCS ladder for Europe developed by E3G and Bellona – similar in principle to Liebreich Associates’ Hydrogen Ladder – finds that CCS for both blast furnace-and DRI-based steelmaking will likely be a ‘financial burden on the emitter’ (Fig 1).
In October 2024, the Kleinman Centre for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania published a CCS ladder for industrial decarbonization in the US, which made similar findings.
Both the International Energy Agency and Wood Mackenzie have reduced their expectations of steel CCS, lowering the amount of CO2 they see being captured in the steel sector. It seems likely these expectations will continue to be lowered in future.
Fig 1. E3G and Bellona – Europe CCS Ladder 2050
Will green iron imports be reconsidered in 2025?
With green hydrogen production looking expensive in Europe, an alternative is to import green iron from locations that have cheap, clean power to produce it at lower cost as well as suitable iron ore.
Both ArcelorMittal and Thyssenkrupp have been publicly resistant to this idea, partly because they are set to receive significant government subsidies to switch to low-carbon iron production domestically.
If cost were the only issue, relocating ironmaking to places where green hydrogen can be produced at lower cost seems like a no-brainer. However, European governments have other issues to consider: industrial policy, employment, geopolitics as well as energy and materials security.
However, Thyssenkrupp’s plan, which includes government subsidy support for its technology transition, clearly hasn’t been enough to protect the 11,000 jobs to be lost. Is it time for Europe to reconsider the role of green iron imports in its steel transition away from coal?
Iron ore giant Vale is seeking opportunities in green hydrogen production to supply a ‘mega hub’ it has planned in Brazil. Under this concept, Vale will supply DR-grade iron ore to industrial hubs producing low-carbon iron for local steelmakers and for export. Vale also has three other mega hubs planned for the Middle East and expects to make two final investment decisions regarding mega hubs in 2025. CWP Global is examining green iron export opportunities from Canada and Mauritania.
Meanwhile, the South Australian government is heavily backing its green iron exports opportunity. South Australia has leapt ahead of Western Australia – the key iron ore exporter in the country –based on the state’s wind- and solar-based power grid, which is heading for net 100% renewable energy by 2027.
With CCS continuing to flounder and iron ore electrolysis some years away, green hydrogen-based iron will be needed to decarbonize primary steel in Europe. Where clean power grids are already available, some early green output could use locally produced green hydrogen. Stegra aims to begin commercial-scale green iron production from 2026 on this basis.
But elsewhere in Europe, green hydrogen production – as well as green hydrogen shipments – may be too expensive to position the steel sector for a decarbonized world and protect jobs.
Decoupling iron and steelmaking involves effectively ‘offshoring’ ironmaking jobs to other countries. But if the impact is to lower the cost of Europe’s steel technology transition, it may end up protecting far more European steelmaking jobs in the long run. �
Steel decarbonization: vital to achieving net zero
In the global drive to combat climate change and achieve net-zero emissions, one industry stands out as presenting both a challenge and a huge opportunity for progress: steel production.
By Daniele Pedron* and Pasi Mannisto*
DESPITE its carbon-intensive nature, steel remains a vital material, integral to urban development and economic growth worldwide. As we face the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the steel industry finds itself at a crossroads, compelled to reinvent its processes while maintaining its crucial role in society.
Steel, with its unparalleled strength and versatility, is indispensable in construction, infrastructure, and manufacturing. However, its production comes at a significant environmental cost. The industry accounts for approximately 5% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, according to a 2023 report from Rhodium Group, making it one of the largest industrial sources of greenhouse gases. This staggering figure underscores the urgency
of finding sustainable solutions for steel production.
To align with the Paris Agreement’s objectives, the steel industry must reduce its annual CO2 emissions by more than half before 2050.
The path to decarbonization
Firstly, energy efficiency improvements and alternative fuel sources are vital. This involves optimising existing processes to reduce energy consumption through equipment upgrades and better insulation. Simultaneously, the industry should explore using hydrogen or biogas as substitutes for coal in steel production. These efforts, combined with sustainable energy integration – transitioning to renewable sources like wind and solar for powering
*Global industry segment managers, ABB Motion
steel plants – can significantly reduce the sector’s carbon footprint.
Digitalisation and innovative production methods are also key to revolutionising steel manufacturing. Increased use of digital technologies can enhance safety, streamline processes, and extend machinery lifespan, leading to more efficient operations and reduced waste. In parallel, greater adoption of Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) processes, especially when combined with electric arc furnaces, presents a lower-emission alternative to traditional blast furnace methods.
Technology talks
Effective implementation of these strategies, particularly in DRI production, relies heavily on advanced technologies. Motors and
variable speed drives (VSDs) play a crucial role in powering compressors, fans, and pumps throughout the production chain.
VSDs are particularly important as they enable optimal efficiency by ensuring motors only consume the electricity needed for the required gas flow. This precision control not only reduces energy consumption but also improves process stability and product quality.
In the potentially explosive environments often found in iron and steel production, certified IEC Zone 2 motors (or corresponding to Division 2 for NEC-CEC standards) are essential for safety and reliability. These specialised motors are designed to operate safely in areas where flammable gases may be present, reducing the risk of accidents while maintaining production efficiency.
Digitally connected motors and VSDs provide real-time operational data, enabling informed maintenance decisions and predictive analytics. This connectivity allows steel producers to optimise their processes continuously, reduce downtime, and extend
equipment lifespan.
The promise of low-carbon steel
The adoption of high-efficiency motors, VSDs, and other advanced technologies is paving the way for the production of low -carbon steel – steel manufactured with significantly lower emissions. The DRIelectric arc furnace route, particularly when using hydrogen as a reducing agent, can emit as little as 0.2 tons of CO2 per ton of crude steel, according to the European Parliament. This represents a dramatic reduction compared to traditional blast furnace methods, which can emit over 2 tons of CO2 per ton of steel.
The transition to low carbon steel is not just an environmental imperative; it’s becoming an economic necessity. As carbon pricing mechanisms and environmental regulations become more stringent, steel producers who fail to decarbonize risk losing competitiveness in a rapidly evolving market.
Time for change
We need to make the most of the decarbonization opportunity for steel in order to achieve our global net-zero targets.
The industry’s transformation will require collaboration between steel producers, technology providers, policymakers, and investors. By embracing innovative technologies, alternative production methods, and combinations of VSDs and high-efficiency motors, the steel industry can dramatically reduce its environmental impact while continuing to support global development.
As we move forward, the steel industry has the potential to become a model for industrial decarbonization, demonstrating that even the hard-to-abate sectors can adapt and thrive in a low-carbon future.
The journey towards low carbon steel is challenging, but the destination – a sustainable, resilient, and environmentally responsible steel industry – is well worth the effort. �
Technological pathways to decarbonization
Decarbonizing the steelmaking industry, which accounts for around 11% of global CO2 emissions, is crucial for achieving the near-zero emissions target. One option is carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS), which could help manage residual emissions from traditional coal-based blast furnace (BF) operations. On the other hand, existing proven technologies have the potential to significantly reduce CO2 emissions in steel production. In this context, the current trend in reducing the carbon footprint of steelmaking involves replacing the ironmaking BF in integrated BF-BOF installations with gas-based Direct Reduction (DR) units. By Jorge Martínez1, Leonardo Tamez2, Pablo Duarte3
THE Direct Reduction (DR) process, which uses natural gas (NG), results in a reduction of approximately 50% in CO2 emissions compared to the BF-BOF route and facilitates the gradual transition from NG to hydrogen (H2) that paves the way for further decarbonization. Understanding the characteristics of DR systems is essential for defining the most effective pathway for decarbonising the steelmaking industry using currently available technologies.
(3) NG-based direct reduced iron (DRI) + electric arc furnace (EAF)
While being the most effective approach in terms of circular economy and minimal CO2 emissions (depending on the carbon intensity of electricity), the scrap-EAF process is limited in its ability to produce high-grade steels due to the concentration of trace elements in the recycled scrap.
(1) Commercial director, Tenova HYL
Direct Reduced Iron (DRI), used as feedstock for EAF in the production of high-quality steels, relies on NG and/or H2 as the primary energy source to reduce iron oxides. This is the current technological pathway for replacing the coal-based BFBOF process for decarbonization. As the composition and amount of gangue in the iron oxide can affect both the operation and economics of the EAF, high-quality iron ores are necessary for DRI production to optimise operating costs and/or steel quality.
An alternative and transitional approach
(2) After sales and marketing manager, Tenova HYL (3) Partner/consultant, Penguin Engineering
for decarbonizing BF-BOF installations involves replacing the ironmaking BF system with a gas-based DR plant coupled with an electric melter, while maintaining the BOF downstream steelmaking facilities in operation.
In this system, the DR plant, using NG and H2 along with low-grade iron ore pellets, produces hot DRI (HDRI), which is fed into the electric melter to produce hot metal, with the required % of carbon (C) content, as feedstock for the existing BOFs. To meet the decarbonization needs
of integrated steelmakers, Tenova offers the iBLUE® scheme, which includes energy recovery from off-gases to be utilised as fuel in the DR plant (Fig 1).
DRI process configurations
The DRI-EAF and DRI-Melter-BOF configurations allow the production of a wide range of steel qualities. The DR plant is based on the use of NG (and/or H2) as the primary energy source for reduction and fuel, which is converted to H2 and CO through hydrocarbons reforming (CH4 CO + 2H2), for reduction of the iron ores, with final by-products consisting of CO2 and H2O, instead of coal (C CO2). The CO2 emissions are ~50% or less compared to those of the BF-BOF scheme.
There are two main methods for the direct reduction of iron ores using NG:
1) The direct injection of NG into the reduction loop of the DR plant, where in-situ reforming takes place within the reduction shaft to produce the required reductants for the reduction process.
2) Employing an NG reformer, an integral and essential component of the reduction process, to generate the reductants H2 and CO.
Method 1 is exemplified by the ENERGIRON process, which features the same core configuration for any reducing gas source, operating at a higher pressure. This innovative technology, jointly developed by Tenova and Danieli, includes an efficient and selective CO2 removal
system, an inherent part of the process, supported by waste energy from top gas heat recovery. It incorporates a process gas heater (PGH) to raise the reducing gas temperature to the required levels, along with oxygen injection when necessary. The CO2 removal system enables the capture of approximately 60% of total CO2 emissions for CCUS, while optimising the recycling of unreacted H2 and CO back into the reduction shaft. The tail gas serves only for inert gas purging and pressure control within the system. As shown in Fig 2, the plant can operate with any combination of NG and H2, simply by adjusting operating modes.
Method 2, on the other hand, is an optimised configuration designed for 100% NG use. It includes the NG reformer, a heat recovery system with partial recycling of top gas through the reformer, and the use of tail gas as fuel, whose primary function is a non-selective carbon purge from the process via the flue gases. However, it lacks inherent capabilities (aside from capturing from the flue gases or tail gas, which would demand extra energy) for efficient CO2 removal. For other reducing gases, different configuration schemes will need to be adapted for each specific case.
The advantages of ENERGIRON DR technology in the transition to green steel
When choosing the approach for DRI production, the following scenarios should be considered:
a) The DR plant will operate with 100% NG and a certain proportion of H2 for a period, with the ultimate goal of transitioning to 100% H2 use in the foreseeable future.
b) The DR plant will operate exclusively with 100% H2 from the start.
For the first scenario, if the scheme includes a catalytic NG reformer and progressively replaces NG with H2, there are several considerations. These include the use of the reformer as an H2 heater, operating it whenever NG is used, diverting valuable H2 as fuel for the overall energy balance, or potentially exporting energy, depending on the NG/H2 ratio and overall energy efficiency. Ultimately, when nearing 100% H2 usage, the reformer may become an inefficient heater or could be replaced with a heater.
In this instance, the ENERGIRON
Fig 1. Steelmaking routes
scheme presents unique benefits in terms of reduction of CO2 emissions, energy optimisation, NG/H2 use and operational flexibility.
As illustrated in Fig 2, the ENERGIRON plant offers the unique flexibility to operate with any combination of reducing gases, utilising the same process scheme and equipment. This flexibility is demonstrated by DR plants using ENERGIRON technology, including the Hybrit plant in Sweden, which operates with 100% H2, and the Baowu plant in China, which uses NG, COG, and H2 (Picture 1). The DR plant can handle any mix of NG (and other gases) with H2, up to 100% H2, by adjusting process parameters and bypassing certain equipment, depending on the operational mode (Fig 2).
When using mixtures of NG/H2, the
plant offers the flexibility to accommodate variations in H2 supply as well as the ability to transition between 100% NG and 100% H2, or any ratio in between, at any given time. This can be achieved in a short time span simply by adjusting operating conditions, based on predictive process algorithms, without compromising plant productivity and DRI quality. The carbon %in the DRI will vary depending on the proportion of H2 used.
As mentioned earlier, the ENERGIRON DR scheme already incorporates an inherent CO2 removal system as part of the process configuration, without any additional energy requirements (thus avoiding implicit extra CO2 emissions). This enables the process to reduce approximately 60% of CO2 emissions from the DR plant, without the need for a low-carbon H2 feed, provided
CCUS is available. This is equivalent to using low-carbon H2 derived from NG via steam methane reforming with carbon capture and storage, or blue hydrogen. Picture 2
As shown in Fig 3, the CO2 emissions from the DR plant are nearly identical in the cases of NG without CCUS + 55% H2 (% energy), and NG with CCUS. Notably, the NG with CCUS + 30% H2 scenario results in lower CO2 emissions compared to NG without CCUS + 55% H2. Additionally, it can be observed that when the H2 exceeds 70%, CO2 removal is no longer required and can be bypassed. This allows for the flexibility to achieve substantial emissions reductions and associated savings, depending on the specific costs and/or availability of effective CCUS options or lowcarbon hydrogen use.
In the second scenario, provided that the DR plant operates exclusively with 100% H2, as shown in Fig 2, the ENERGIRON scheme can be simplified by omitting the CO2 absorption system, oxygen injection and the humidifier, as the latter is only necessary to control the %C in the DRI when a high %NG is used.
In this context, while other systems adopt the same process configuration by substituting the NG reformer with a heater, the ENERGIRON system provides substantial advantages:
• Due to the high operating pressure (6-8 barA at top gas), the reduction shaft diameter is smaller for a high-productivity plant, offering greater flexibility when processing high %H2. For lower gas molecular weight/density, gas velocity and distribution can be adjusted by both volumetric flow and operating pressure,
Fig 2.Nucor ENERGIRON DR plant at Nucor Steel, Louisiana, USA with CCUS, which has achieved a worldwide record of combined 330tons/hr productivity with DRI @96%Mtz and 3.3%C.
Picture 1. ENERGIRON DR Plant at Baowu, China, using NG, COG & H2
which is not at the lower limit and can be optimised for the required pressure drop (∆P), enhancing H2 recycling. In contrast, a low-pressure scheme with a wider shaft diameter for the same capacity needs much higher H2 flow to offset the lower ∆P and maintain proper gas distribution.
• Regarding operating pressure, recycling unreacted H2 from the top gas to the reduction shaft results in lower power consumption with higher suction pressure at the compressor, for the same ∆P. For comparison, with the same flow and ∆P, the power consumption of the recycling gas
compressor in a lower-pressure scheme with 100% H2 is approximately four times higher than that of the ENERGIRON compressor, in addition to requiring higher volumetric flow in the wider shaft.
• The above improves the energy optimisation of the ENERGIRON scheme with just 8,3 GJ/tDRI, including fuel, or about 6,6 GJ/tDRI for process only, and power demand of only 35 kWh/tDRI (core plant).Depending on the carbon intensity and costs of grid/renewable electricity and H2, an electric PGH can replace the directfired heater.
Conclusion
The ENERGIRON process offers unique flexibility for processing NG, H2, and other reducing gases in any combination, all within the same plant, ensuring efficient and seamless operation.
Regardless of the proportion of H2 used, the process configuration and operating conditions result in highly optimised thermal and electrical energy consumption. Key advantages of monetising selective CO2 capture from the ENERGIRON DR plant:
• The ENERGIRON process provides the flexibility to consider selective CO2 capture for effective CCUS, either as a bridging alternative or in conjunction with the use of low-carbon H2, equivalent to approximately 55% H2 feed.
• There are no additional energy requirements or capital expenditure for the CO2captured in the reduction loop, which is ready for CCUS, as is currently the case with several ENERGIRON DR plants in operation.
• Even when accounting for costs associated with CO2 storage (around 80 US$/t) or utilisation (around 60 US$/t), which equates to approximately 0,80 US$/ kgH2and 0,55 US$/kgH2, respectively [IEA, Global Hydrogen Review 2023], these costs remain lower than those of low-carbon H2 produced from SMR with CCS and are significantly less than H2 produced via water electrolysis. However, it is important to note that the long-term environmental impacts of CO2 storage are still very much under analysis. �
- NG w/CCUS refers to CCUS applicable to selective and available CO2 capture in the ENERGIRON DR plant - The analysis is based on only direct CO2 emissions, without including carbon footprint from Low-C H2. The difference between Low-C H2 from SMR w/CCS (@93% capture) and Green-H2 from water electrolysis powered by renewable energy, is about 1,1-2,7 kgCO2/kgH2, including upstream/midstream emissions.
Picture 2. Nucor ENERGIRON DR Plant at Nucor Steel, Louisiana, USA, which has achieved a worldwide record of combined 330 t/h productivity with DRI @96%Mtz & 3,3%C
Fig 3. Direct CO2 emissions from ENERGIRON DR plant under different CCUS/H2 use scenarios
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Building the industry of the future
There are significant opportunities for growth and innovation in the steel industry, says IDOM, but challenges remain – particularly in terms of the level of funding required to drive decarbonization at the pace required.
By Andoni Borjabaz*
1. How are things going at IDOM? Is the steel industry keeping you busy?
Things at IDOM are going exceptionally well. We are engaged in several landmark projects and are competing for new opportunities at the highest levels in the metallurgical and mining industries. Our focus on process, infrastructure, innovation, and sustainability ensures that we deliver high-quality solutions while staying ahead of industry trends.
2. What is your view on the current state of the global steel industry?
The global steel industry is currently facing challenges and opportunities. Challenges include overcapacity, trade tensions, and the need to reduce carbon emissions, which is a key focus for IDOM.
However, there are also significant opportunities for growth and innovation, particularly in sustainability and the use of advanced technologies to improve efficiency and reduce environmental impact. Overall, we believe the industry is well-positioned to adapt to these challenges and continue to play a vital role in the global economy.
3. In which sector of the steel industry does IDOM conduct its business?
Our primary focus within the steel industry is on decarbonization and the implementation of green technologies. We are involved in projects from the mining phase to the finished steel product, including low-carbon or green processes in pellet production, direct-reduced iron making (DRI), and steelmaking.
Our commitment to sustainability and innovation drives us to integrate cleaner technologies and digital transformation approaches.
4. Where in the world are you busiest at present?
Andoni Borjabaz
As a multinational company, IDOM has projects all over the world. In the metals and minerals business, we are involved in major EU decarbonization projects in France, Germany, and Sweden, as well as in the Middle East, North America, and South America. Many of these projects are driven by the need to reduce the carbon footprint of the steel industry hence the growing popularity of Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) steel production compared with blast furnaces. This necessitates finding alternatives to scrap as a raw material, leading to the proliferation of Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) production facilities.
5. Can you discuss any major steel contracts you are working on?
Two notable examples are our collaborations with H2 Green Steel and GravitHy, both of which aim to use green or low-carbon technologies to decarbonize the steelmaking process, achieving up to a 95% reduction in CO2 emissions compared with traditional steelmaking routes.
6. Where does IDOM stand on the aluminium versus steel argument?
*Metals and minerals director, IDOM
We are actively involved in both aluminium and steel projects and have contributed to significant aluminium initiatives such as the Ma’aden Alcoa project in Saudi Arabia, which includes a bauxite mine, alumina refinery, and an aluminium hot and cold rolling mill.
The steel industry is experiencing a significant movement towards green steel production. The path toward decarbonization through the use of renewable hydrogen and other sustainable technologies is gaining ground. The transition to green steel is at the forefront of our efforts.
7. What are your views on digital manufacturing?
We focus on digitalization and Industry 4.0 by offering services oriented towards four main technological areas to provide complete coverage of the digital factory that requires IT/OT integration. These areas include automation, instrumentation and control; manufacturing intelligence (MI) and machine learning (ML) solutions; industrial internet of things (IIoT), representing the network of physical objects that collect and exchange data; and manufacturing operations management (MOM) systems, which integrate and orchestrate all the information. IDOM offers digital twin solutions, MES implementation, and machine learning solutions, among others.
We support our clients in their digital transformation journeys through project execution, combining multidisciplinary engineering and digital capabilities to make the design of new manufacturing infrastructures a reality.
8. In your dealings with steel producers, are you finding that they are looking to companies like IDOM to offer solutions in terms of energy
efficiency and sustainability? If so, what can you offer them?
Steel producers are increasingly looking to companies like IDOM for solutions to improve their energy efficiency and sustainability. IDOM offers a range of services, including energy audits to identify and rectify inefficiencies, integration of renewable energy sources, waste heat recovery systems, and advanced emissions control technologies. Additionally, IDOM is working on process optimization through digitalization and automation, as well as promoting circular economy practices to minimize waste and environmental impact.
9. How quickly has the steel industry responded to ‘green politics’ in terms of making the production process more environmentally friendly and are they succeeding or fighting a losing battle?
The steel industry is changing fast and actively responding by exploring various technologies and strategies to make the production process more environmentally friendly. Although there are significant challenges, there is a clear movement towards innovation and sustainability. The success of green steel depends on creating enough demand to incentivize steelmakers to invest in low-emission technologies. The industry is committed to advancing technological capabilities, decarbonization, and sustainable practices to improve efficiency, reduce environmental impact, and enhance the quality of steel production processes.
10. How are things going with the ‘green transition’?
Green transition projects are progressing more slowly than anticipated due to insufficient aid. For these largescale projects to succeed, it is crucial for governments to provide more comprehensive support. The significant investments required for these initiatives often result in slow decision-making without external backing.
11. Where does IDOM lead the field in terms of steel production technology?
IDOM leads the field in steel production technology by fostering strong relationships with technology suppliers. This collaboration grants us access to the latest innovations and best practices in the steel
industry, enabling us to develop customized solutions for our clients.
Our process and technology team continuously monitors state-of-the-art advancements and trains with major suppliers to ensure our expertise remains up-to-date.
Our company is employee-owned, and this is of significant value to our clients. They can access non-biased consultancy in terms of technology assessment and can also benefit from our in technologyagnostic solutions.
12. How do you view IDOM’s development over the short-tomedium term in relation to the global steel industry?
Highly promising and aligned with the evolving demands of the global steel industry. Our commitment to advancing technological capabilities, decarbonization, and sustainable practices positions us to enhance efficiency, reduce environmental
that protect the environment and reduce emissions. The authorities are regulating it to ensure fair and balanced competition.
14. Where do you see most innovation in terms of production technologies – primary, secondary or more downstream?
Innovation is occurring across all phases of steel production, driven by a digital revolution. Advanced technologies are being adopted to enhance safety, efficiency, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The primary stages, which produce significant emissions, are at the forefront of innovation and are garnering considerable interest from clients.
15. What are the key challenges facing the global steel industry going forward?
impact, and improve our steel production processes.
13. How should the industry react to Chinese overcapacity?
The industry should react to China’s dominance in global crude steel production by diversifying supply chains, investing in advanced technologies to enhance efficiency, and forming strategic partnerships to strengthen market positions.
Emphasizing high-quality, specialized products and sustainability can attract environmentally conscious clients and investors. Staying informed about market trends and being open to changes are also crucial to meet the challenges posed by China’s dominance.
The steel industry must decarbonize and supply the market with high-quality, competitive, and sustainable solutions
The most notable challenges include decarbonization and digitalization of processes.
16. IDOM is headquartered in Spain; what’s happening steel-wise in the country?
Spain is poised to shift towards greener steel production, with substantial investments being made in the production and distribution of green hydrogen. These proactive measures position Spain favourably to achieve its sustainability targets for 2030 and 2050.
17. If you possessed a superpower, how would you use it to improve the global steel industry?
To create innovative technologies that reduce the carbon footprint of steel production. I would accelerate the development of green steel technologies, making them more cost-effective and accessible. �
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Pioneers of coke-ironmaking: Part 2 – Clemente Clerke and Shadrach Fox
This is Part 2 of a series started in the November 2024 issue of Steel Times International, tracing the development of smelting with coal prior to the success of Abraham Darby 1st producing iron suitable for casting at Coalbrookdale in 1709. This was achieved by first coking the coal to reduce its impurities, a process familiar to Darby from his training as a malt miller and brass founder.
By Peter King*
SIR Clement Clerke (d.1693) was conferred as a baronet at the Restoration of King Charles II in 1660. He had bought the Launde Abbey estate in Leicestershire in 1657 and, the following year, bestowed this upon his wife Sarah.
Clerke owned the civil parish of Rudge in Shropshire, which perhaps brought him into contact with Dud Dudley, who pioneered the use of coal in smelting. Dudley must have been over 70 years old when he designed and built a furnace at Dudley, in the English Midlands (See ‘Pioneers of coke-ironmaking: Part 1 –Dud Dudley’ in Steel Times International’s November 2024 issue). Clerke became a partner in this venture along with John Finch. Finch had two finery forges; one in the Midlands at Cookley and one near the river Stour, as well as two plating forges. Andrew Yarranton, who was then trying to make the river Stour navigable, brought together Finch and a rival ironmaster Philip Foley, who, in 1672, agreed not to bid each other up in buying wood for charcoal. The terms of the agreement included that the Dudley furnace would not be used with charcoal, but rather pit coal as pioneered by Dud Dudley. In the ensuing period, Foley and Finch transferred ironworks to Sir Clement Clerke and his London partner Alderman John Foorth. Yarranton then persuaded the partners to invest in his navigation scheme, but Clerke was short of money and contrary to an agreement with Foorth, borrowed against his share. Nothing was spent on the river navigation (apart from paying some debts). In 1674, they sold the Dudley ironworks to a new partnership, which ultimately abandoned plans in 1681. In the meantime,
Illustration of an air furnace for melting iron scrap visited by the Swedish traveller, Reinhold Rücker Angerstein in 1753 at Southwark, London. Note the scrap cannon inserted into the melting chamber which is isolated from the furnace fire to the right to avoid contamination from the coal used as fuel.
Success was achieved with lead being successfully and profitably smelted, but financial arrangements were complicated and led to litigation between Grandison and his colleagues, and Sir Clement and his son Talbot. Talbot took over management of the works until a receiver was appointed in Chancery, this then excluding the Clerkes from the business until 1689. Grandison and partners expected payment of their capital from the first proceeds, not merely the profits. This was not helped by an associate of Grandison having received £500 to establish a furnace in Derbyshire, which he failed to do.
Clerke remained a proprietor in the Stour navigation project. A further attempt to complete the river’s navigation was made by Andrew Yarranton’s son Robert, but that project was idled in 1680.
With the collapse of the iron business, Sir Clement Clerke turned to lead smelting at Stockley Slade in Bristol, operating under patents granted to Samuel Hutchinson in 1676 and renewed in 1678 to Lord Grandison, who had financed him. These were for ‘making lead in close (reverberatory) furnaces with pit coal.’ These furnaces were also called ‘cupiloes’ or cupolas, but were an entirely different species from later foundry cupolas, popular within the 19th century. When Hutchinson was unable to achieve success using coal to smelt lead, Lord Grandison approached Sir Clement Clerke, who was supposed to know about smelting with coal, a method he may well have learned from Dud Dudley.
While the Bristol Stockley Slade works was out of the hands of the Clerkes during the Chancery receivership, they tried smelting copper by the same means, probably at Putney, London, where a furnace built by Sir Clement was described as the ‘pattern and original of the rest’. A patent was taken out for this in 1687. George Clerke (another son) leased a corn mill at Lower Redbrooke in the Forest of Dean in 1690 and a copper works was built there. This business was then incorporated, commonly being called the ‘English Copper Company’, which operated the works for nearly a century. In 1692, the lead business was transferred to the chartered ‘Company for Smelting Down Lead with Pitcoal’, but this had problems and the works were handed back to Talbot Clerke (now Sir Talbot) in 1695. The charter was subsequently bought by Quakers who had taken over a smelter at Ryton-uponTyne, this being referred to as the ‘London Lead Company’.
Shadrach Fox
Talbot Clerke was also involved in a third
*Dr King serves on the Council of the Historical Metallurgy Society and is the author of a book and many articles on the history of the iron and steel industry
company with a charter based in Foorth’s lead company, ‘The Company for Making Iron with Pitcoal’. This had a foundry with an air (reverberatory) furnace located at Vauxhall in Lambeth, London. This was ‘for remelting and casting old iron with sea coal’ (coal washed up on beaches). This was ‘the first of these built by direction of Sir Clement Clerke’, exploiting a patent granted to Thomas Addison in 1692. Shadrach Fox and his brother, Thomas, were involved with this, with Thomas operating a foundry. In 1689, Fox supplied the Board of Ordnance with grenade shells according to Sir Henry Shere (the surveyor-general), as well as mortars and hand grenades. These may have been cast at Vauxhall, as Shadrach was sued as the ‘ingineer’ for not paying for coal supplied there in 1690, passing the claim on to the company’s treasurer.
The Foxes came from Shropshire, where their father worked Caynton Forge between 1652 and 1670. When the iron company obtained a contract for shot, Shadrach Fox seems to have leased Coalbrookdale Furnace, enabling him to deliver round shots to Bristol in 1693, 1694, and 1695. He renewed the Coalbrookdale lease in
1696 and made bombs and other items for the government. He smelted ‘ironstone with pitcoal’ there. This was patented by Addison, but he was presumably operating under this patent.
In 1696, Shadrach Fox rebuilt a furnace at Wombridge, Telford with Thomas Fox in charge. This was on the Shropshire estate of Sir John Charlton, the then surveyorgeneral (who would have placed the orders for shot and other supplies). Isaac Hawkins of Malinslee supplied coal and ironstone for this furnace until 1701, the year when Thomas died. Shadrach employed Roger Downes, a London brass founder, to make cast iron bellied pots at Coalbrookdale, some eight years before Abraham Darby I invented a more efficient casting process for such pots, also at Coalbrookdale.
Shadrach’s furnace at Coalbrookdale exploded some time before April 1703, when a mortgage of the lease was sold for less than the debt owing. Possibly this mishap was as early as 1700, when Downes went to work for Zachary Downing at Halesowen. At some point Shadrach had a lease of a mill-house and lands at Deptford, London, under the Evelyns. In
1704 he agreed to teach Richard Tolson and James Puckle (both lawyers) the art of making grenade shells and hand mortars, and he delivered such munitions to one William Johnson. Puckle was responsible for producing a precursor of the machine gun. In 1707, Shadrach agreed with a merchant to take a ship to Archangel in Russia and enter the service of the ‘Czar of Muscovy’ as a founder. He had raised a considerable sum of money in England for this venture and went bringing ‘new fashioned mortars, square musketoons, and grenadoes to burn ships.’ However, he died of ‘collick’ the following March, probably before he had the opportunity to produce any munitions for Peter the Great’s war with Sweden. �
Acknowledgement
This article is largely based on the author’s ‘Innovation in the Iron Trade’, published in the International Journal for the history of Engineering and Technology 94(1) (2024), 12-41. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/17581206.2023.2299493;
‘Sir Clement Clerke and the Adoption of Coal In Metallurgy’, Transactions of Newcomen Society 73 (2001-2), 33-53. https://doi.org/10.1179/tns.2001.002;
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