Wood Mackenzie Highlighted Need for Major Shift in Steelmaking Process

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Analysts at Wood Mackenzie pointed out that there needs a major shift in the way steel is produced if the industry is serious about achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

The new report titled ‘Petal to the Metal’ published by the agency outlined the ambitious steps to be taken by the steel industry to meet Paris climate targets. Incidentally, the industry is responsible for nearly 7% of global carbon dioxide emissions.

The global steel industry needs to make rampant shift from the dominant blast furnace or basic oxygen furnace route of steelmaking to electric arc furnace route. Also, hydrogen powered direct reduced iron must be employed for iron production. The demand for these high grades of iron ore must need to grow by at least fivefold to 750 Mtpa by 2050 over current levels. In addition, the pool of scrap steel will also need to at least double to 1.3 billion tons, it noted.

According to Wood Mackenzie, as much as $1.4 trillion needs to be spent on new mines, renewable energy, steel mills, hydrogen and carbon capture to reduce carbon emissions from steel making by 90%. Meantime, it also predicts challenges to the transition from a wide variety of sources.

The report also highlights on the need to reduce the cost of production of green hydrogen, so as to help the industry meet the ambitious targets.

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