Automakers should capitalize on upcoming green steel technologies to decarbonize industry, CALSTART says
The webinar, hosted by the non-profit organization, which has a focus on the development of efficient transport solutions, featured panelists from green iron and steelmakers Boston Metal, Electra and Stegra.
The automotive sector is a large consumer of steel produced via primary steelmaking, which is a highly emissions-intensive process, Gordon said on Thursday. The US market has a 30:70 split of primary steel and secondary steel, which involves using recycled steel and has far lower emissions due to the use of electricity.
The US produces about 20 million tons per year of primary steel, he said.
To match that capacity, CALSTART estimates that it would take 8-12 green steel facilities, developing a need to ramp-up green steel production by aggregating demand, Gordon said.
“Demand has such a massive effect on the investments that are made,” Gordon said. “When we make steel today, we release between 1.5 and 3 tons of [carbon dioxide] per ton of steel. To make green steel, we need to take the carbon dioxide [out].”
The decarbonization of steel concerns the decarbonizing of iron, Holger Koehler, head of strategy with clean iron company Electra, said.
“It’s not the electric-arc furnace [steelmaking process] that is novel,” he said. “It is really the direct use of iron with 100% hydrogen testing. It’s all about the iron-making, and that requires a partnership along the value chain that is absolutely critical.”
Electra intended to operate a commercial-scale green steel facility in Sweden by 2030. This will produce high-purity iron plate from low-grade iron ore using renewable energy and electrochemical processes. The company has a pilot plant already operating in Boulder, in the US state of Colorado.
Michael Lovgren, head of commercial metallics of Stegra, and Adam Rauwerdink, senior vice president of business development at Boston Metal, both highlighted the importance of collaboration and a robust supply chain in the development of the green steel market.
Stegra, previously H2 Green Steel, is building a large-scale green steel plant in Boden, Sweden, aiming for near-zero-emissions steel production using green hydrogen and renewable electricity, with operations scheduled to begin in 2027.
Meanwhile, Boston Metal will deploy its first demonstration plant relating to the scalability of molten oxide electrolysis (MOE) steel to achieve commercial production in 2026. MOE does not require coke production, iron ore sintering and pelletizing, blast furnace reduction or basic oxygen furnace refinement.
When it comes to accelerating the decarbonization of the steel industry, Lovgren noted the importance of collaborating with original equipment manufacturers to strengthen the supply chain, to create the demand for low carbon emissions steel.
“Where we definitely see the most value from automotive and some of these other early adopting markets is just stability of demand,” Rauwerdink said, “showing that the demand for green steel and low carbon emission steel is real, that it can survive the headlines of the day. That will allow the steel industry to make the capital allocations needed to really drive this change.”
Global decarbonization trajectory
Globally, the panelists highlighted China and India as markets to target when it comes to decarbonization, due to the mix of electric-arc furnace (EAF) and blast furnace (BF) steel production in those countries.
The global steel industry produces nearly 1.9 billion tonnes per year of steel, according to the World Economic Forum, and is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.
“If your goal is to decarbonize 1.9 billion tpy of steel, something like 1.1 [billion tpy] of that is in India and China. So that’s certainly our priorities,” Rauwerdink said during the webinar. “The majority of the world’s blast furnaces are in China. So that’s going to be a critical market.
“India is… forecast to grow in terms of overall steel supply,” he added. “They’ll be putting assets into the ground that will have decades of life. That’s an important part of decarbonizing the future of steel.”
The decarbonization trajectory of the Chinese and Indian steel markets were likely to be prolonged, Holgren said, due to the relatively newer cadre of blast furnaces in these countries.
“Those fleets are relatively young,” Holgren said. “The Chinese and especially the Indian fleet are actually really young blast furnaces. So that will be a longer-term [objective].”
As recently as September 2024, Tata Steel commissioned India’s largest blast furnace.
Focusing on Asia, Lovgren highlighted that Japan and South Korea were bright spots for green steel demand.
“But again,” he said, “the fleet is younger, so the kind of demand from that perspective looks a bit different and it’s less mature.”
Stegra receives €100m from Industrial Leap Fund
Swedish greenfield venture Stegra, formerly known as H2 Green Steel, has been granted about €100 million ($111m) from Sweden’s Industrial Leap Fund for its establishment of a near-zero-emission mill.
In 2018, Sweden introduced a national climate law and implemented an “Industrial Leap Fund”, as a means to support the commercialisation of innovation in the industry, Kallanish learns.
Stegra points out that the financial grant helps to better balance the playing field, in relation to steel companies in Europe that have received large support packages. “This creates the prerequisites for us to build up a long-term sustainable and competitive industry in Sweden,” says Stegra chief executive Henrik Henriksson.
Stegra adds that its climate calculations are based on CINEA’s methodology. CINEA is the European Climate, Environment and Infrastructure Executive Agency – the European Commission agency which manages decarbonisation and sustainable growth. The calculations have been verified by an external expert, DNV, and all input data has been validated by independent auditor PWC, Stegra notes.
Christian Koehl Germany
Stegra bets on Sines, Portugal
Swedish greenfield venture H2 Green Steel is changing its name to Stegra, Kallanish learns. The company also says its prospective project in Portugal has received power allocation.
H2 Green Steel was launched in 2021 to build the world’s first large-scale green steel plant, with start of production scheduled in 2026. “The team continues to prove that it is possible to do more and to change things fast, also in an industry that has for a long time been considered difficult to decarbonise. As we continue this journey, we leave our more descriptive project name behind, and take on the name Stegra, which reflects our long-term ambitions,” says company chief executive Henrik Henriksson.
“Stegra is a Swedish word which means ‘to elevate’,” Henriksson explains. “It is a constant reminder of the company’s purpose and honours our Swedish roots and where it all began in Boden (northern Sweden).”
Stegra also notes it has a “solid funnel of potential projects” outside of Sweden that are being explored as part of a longer-term outlook. It is looking at locations which offer abundant access to renewable electricity and strong grid connections. Locations under consideration include Portugal, Canada and Brazil.
“Presently, a project in Portugal, where the site selection has been made and land reserved near Sines, is the most advanced. Notification on substantial allocation of the power needed has been made to Stegra and our local value chain partnerships continue to evolve,” says Henriksson.
The firm said in June it was looking at Portugal as a viable location for HBI production (see Kallanish passim).
Christian Koehl Germany
Sweden’s H2 Green Steel rebrands as Stegra, eyes projects in Portugal, Canada, Brazil
H2 Green Steel, the startup targeting to produce steel with up to 95% less CO2 emissions in Boden, Sweden, said Sept. 12 it is also looking at projects outside the country while announcing a rebranding to Stegra.
Stegra will explore the potential for growth over the long term, leveraging its experience at the Boden plant, it said in the press release.
“Stegra has a solid funnel of potential projects outside of Sweden that are being explored as part of a longer-term outlook,” the company said.
Projects are characterized by locations where the company’s customers need help with value-chain decarbonization and those that offer abundant access to renewable power and strong grid connections. The locations under consideration include Portugal, Canada and Brazil.
“Presently, a project in Portugal, where the site selection has been made and land reserved near Sines, is the most advanced. Notification on substantial allocation of the power needed has been made to Stegra and our local value chain partnerships continue to evolve,” said CEO Henrik Henriksson.
H2 Green Steel was launched in 2021 to reduce emissions in the steel industry within an ambitious timeline and it is Europe’s first greenfield mill in 50 years, set to produce low-carbon steel in a fully integrated production process, using electricity from renewable sources and green hydrogen.
H2 Green Steel’s project includes a giga-scale green hydrogen plant as an integrated part of the steel production facility. Use of hydrogen rather than coal in the production represents one of the main routes for the industry to reduce its CO2 emissions, with H2 Green Steel pioneering the technology in Europe. The facility will produce the green hydrogen necessary to make green iron and plans to supply 5 million metric tons of high-quality green steel to the market by 2030.
A Stegra spokesperson told S&P Global Commodity Insights that timeline for the Boden mill remains with the company that has started to put roofs on buildings in August and during summer received the first production equipment.
“We are building the railway on the site that will connect to the public railway. Presently we are around 1,000 construction workers on site and this will grow exponentially over the coming months,” she said.
Having secured funding of Eur6.5 billion for its venture, the company is one of the most watched energy transition startups as the steel industry is responsible for around 5% of CO2 emissions in the EU and 7% globally. The sector needs to develop and commercialize new low-CO2 technologies within the next 5-10 years to be in line with the EU’s climate targets.
Platts carbon-accounted steel assessments
Following market trend and recent technology innovations, Platts, part of Commodity Insights, launched Sept. 11 the first ever carbon-accounted rebar and medium sections assessments, after having launched in May 2023 the world’s first carbon-accounted flat steel assessment for HRC.
Platts assessed Northwest European carbon-accounted hot-rolled coil at Eur660 per metric ton ex-works Ruhr Sept. 11, stable on the day. Platts assessed Northwest European carbon-accounted rebar at Eur685/t EXW Northwest Europe on Sept. 11, Commodity Insights data showed.
Tradable values for the premium were reported at Eur30-40/t for CO2e content around 0.1-0.2 metric ton, and at Eur30-180/t for CO2e content around 0.1-0.5 metric ton, both under scopes 1-2.
Platts assessed European carbon-accounted medium sections at Eur882.50/t DDP Europe on Sept. 11. Tradable values for the premium were reported at Eur80/t for CO2e content around 0.1-0.2 metric ton, and at Eur30-180/t for CO2e content around 0-0.5 metric ton, both under scopes 1-2, according to data from Commodity Insights.
