Access to finance remains an issue for the steel industry’s net zero carbon target, so some delays could be seen in reaching targets globally, Ugur Dalbeler, vice president of the Turkish Steel Exporters’ Union (CIB) and CEO of major Turkish steel producer Colakoglu, said.
Noting that Turkey has some advantages on an environmental basis, especially in the steelmaking process, Dalbeler said at the “Future of the Steel Industry: Decarbonization, Circular Economy, and Emerging Challenges” panel held in the United Nations (UN) Climate Change Conference (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan Nov. 16 that the Turkish steel sector will be separated positively from its rivals in the coming years due to this advantage.
Electric arc furnaces’ share in total steel production in Turkey is around 75%, which has lower carbon emissions compared with the basic oxygen steelmaking process (BOF).
“If Turkey will manage to reduce Scope 2 emissions on the energy side successfully, logistic issues could be also solved easily in the coming years,” the CEO noted.
Turkey completed its sectoral low carbon road map studies this year and has set a 99% emission reduction goal for the steel industry by 2053.
In the low-carbon pathway (LCP) scenario of the Turkish Trade Mistry’s report, total emissions of the Turkish steel sector can be reduced by 20.6% in 2040 and 99.7% in 2053.
In the optimal LCP scenario, the EAF route continues to have the largest share in the production of steel in Turkey in 2053. However, with the expected increase in scrap prices and the introduction of new BOF technologies, EAF use will decrease to 62% of total production capacity by 2053 from the current 75%, according to the report.
EAF technology’s share will be firstly gradually replaced by DRI technology and later by BOF using hydrogen-based DRI, the report said, adding that 13% of the production capacity for traditional EAF will be shifted to DRI and hydrogen-based technologies in 2053.
Access to finance, however, remained an issue for the net zero carbon target both for Turkey and the global steel industry,” Dalbeler said, adding that to have the necessary finance and technologies, these kinds of organizations (COP29) are very useful.
