Tata Steel Nederland to supply low carbon steel from 2023

Tata Steel Nederland has reached agreements to supply its low carbon product Zeremis Carbon Lite to a number of steel-processing companies, it said Feb. 28.

The steelmaker has signed agreements with sustainable steel belt and tube producer Wuppermann, shock absorbers and suspension system manufacturer BILSTEIN, German steel distributor EMW Stahl Service and southern European cold rolled high and low carbon steel maker Arania.

Tata has been supplying Zeremis Carbon Lite, which has an allocated carbon footprint reduction of up to 90%, since last July.

It plans to introduce additional Zeremis low carbon steel products, such as Zeremis products with increased recycled content.

“The use of lower CO2 steel by these steel processors, who supply major players in the automotive and industrial markets, enables their customers to make greener end-products such as kitchens, robotic storage systems and passenger cars,” Tata said.

“Over the years, we have developed a collaboration with Wuppermann, BILSTEIN, EMW Stahl Service and Arania that allowed for open discussion on ways to further reduce their scope-3 emissions and create shared sustainability strategies,” Tata Steel Nederland CEO Hans van den Berg said.

“We can already supply them a significant amount of high-quality low-CO2 steel now, and we aim to offer large quantities of high-quality green steel by 2030, when we target to commission our first direct reduction plants and electric furnaces at our IJmuiden site.”

Currently, the CO2 intensity of the steel produced in IJmuiden is around 7% below the European average and 19% below the global average, and set to fall further once it is converted to using green hydrogen-based steelmaking.

Tata Steel Nederland aims to reduce its CO2 emissions by 35%-40% by 2030 and to be carbon neutral by 2045.

Last August, Tata Steel Nederland signed contracts with three companies to advance technical preparations for the use of hydrogen in steelmaking at Ijmuiden.

Tata also previously signed an agreement with the national grid operator TenneT for a direct connection to the national electricity grid to be able to use green energy for future operations.

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed domestic HRC prices in Northern Europe at Eur795/mt ($843/mt) ex-works Ruhr Feb. 27, up 16% since the start of 2023.

— Jacqueline Holman