Gestamp and Tata Steel UK have signed a recycling agreement that will see the automotive components producer supply the steelmaker with scrap generated from its production process, for re-use in steelmaking. This will raise Tata’s automotive steel grade recycled content from 17% to 30%.
This steel will then be supplied to Gestamp and passed on to automotive manufacturers, reducing the supply chain carbon footprint.
OEMs need low-emission steel to meet their decarbonisation targets with guaranteed quality and safety. This new circularity concept contributes to achieving sustainability goals by using high-quality scrap as a secondary raw material for the production of low-emissions steel. The increased recycled content has no impact on quality, strength or formability of the steel produced, Tata says.
Under the partnership, Gestamp will channel its high-quality scrap – through efficient collection and transport management – to Tata Steel’s steelworks in Port Talbot, so that it can be used again in future steelmaking. By using the mass balance principle, the returned steel will then be accounted for as part of the component’s recycled content.
The traceability and quality of pre-consumer scrap provided by Gestamp will enable the recycled content of new steel to be increased and the quality of the steel to be preserved, the steelmaker adds.
To ensure accountability, Tata Steel will provide evidence to demonstrate the volume of high-quality scrap supplied and the associated CO2 savings by setting up a Gestamp Recycled Content Bank, which will be independently audited, Tata says in a note sent to Kallanish. Any additional revenue earned by Tata Steel UK as a result of this partnership will be reinvested into further decarbonisation projects.
Bringing back steel scrap from customers like Gestamp to the Port Talbot steelworks is “an important step helping to secure raw materials for steel products both now and in the future”, Tata observes. “It also means recycled, reduced carbon steel is available to automotive manufacturers in the short term until EAF steel is in production.”
Adam Smith Poland