The European steel industry will have to decarbonise in the coming years, but challenges remain to doing this successfully, according to panellists at the Kallanish Green Steel Strategies conference in Brussels on 13 November.
Energy supply and price, hydrogen availability, and creating a level playing field are the key obstacles, they add.
“Europeans have decided we want to decarbonise. As members of the EU, I’m fine with that. We cannot deny climate change,” says Henrik Adam, executive chairman of Tata Steel Netherlands Holding BV.
One issue is energy supply. Even large-scale offshore wind has seen delays in permitting, grid connection and financing, notes Eldar Aghayev, director of transition mineral, metals and batteries at BNP Paribas. Nuclear capacity has the same issues but with added technological difficulties.
The energy problem also applies to hydrogen, another key material for decarbonisation, adds Erika Mink-Zaghloul, head of governmental & regulatory affairs at thyssenkrupp Steel Europe.
Decarbonisation and security need to both become central to policymaking so that policies can look at the whole economy, including raw material and energy supply and end user industries.
The impact of CBAM also risks deindustrialising Europe if it is not extended downstream, panellists warn. “If we have no steel industry, why should you build cars in Europe?” Adams noted.
However, the transition also provides opportunities. “I’m a green steel optimist, but I don’t wear green glasses,” said Stanislav Zinchenko, ceo of consultancy GMK Center. The outlook for small and new players in green steelmaking in Europe is better than a year ago, he adds. Larger players have been slower to take advantage of opportunities, however.
The improved outlook is in part because the discussion on green steelmaking has changed over the last five years, says Aghayev.
Recent events have made Europe far more conscious of the need to avoid dependencies on other regions and to keep production of key materials on the continent.
Steel companies have to adapt rapidly to this new reality.
“Decarbonisation strategies need to be refreshed,” Zinchenko notes, now that carbon costs are beginning to be factored into both domestic and imported supply from 2026.
