Edwin Basson, Director General, World Steel Association

ENERGY and CO2 reduction in the steel industry

The steel industry is both CO2 and energy intensive.  The high level of competition and focus on efficiency, support a process of continuous reduction in energy use in the industry.  Depending on the steelmaking technology used, reducing CO2 emissions substantially becomes more difficult, but internal benchmarking results indicate that some improvement is still possible.  However, with present technology, the industry will find it difficult to ensure CO2 reduction to the levels indicated by a future carbon neutral requirement.  Owing to the vital role that steel plays in so many applications in modern society, it is important to focus on the energy and CO2 impact of complete product value chains in the future.  In this way, the incentive to focus on products that reduce energy and CO2 emissions is increased and, while it may not reduce emissions from the steel industry, it will still contribute to lower emission levels in society overall.  The metric of life cycle assessment (LCA) in the context of the circular economy is important in this regard.

Hiroshi Tomono, Senior Advisor, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation