Will green steel really become widespread?
The necessary political framework has so far been lacking. Such a framework would need to be established, amongst other things by systematically implementing the Steel Action Concept published by the German government last summer and by adding an industry policy perspective to the EU’s Green Deal. Given the mammoth task involved in moving towards green steel production processes, it’s also essential to clarify how we can effectively avoid putting the steel industry in Germany and Europe at a competitive disadvantage compared with the rest of the world. Achieving that will stop carbon leakage, that is to say the transfer of energy-intensive production and emissions to other regions of the world with less strict climate protection requirements.
What are the consequences of the green steel transformation for the steel industry, industrial production as a whole and society?
Switching a third of primary steel production in Germany from the blast furnace converter route to hydrogen-based processes could already achieve CO2 savings of up to 30 per cent by 2030 compared with 2018. Scrap-based electric steel production is a second strategy for creating a climate-neutral steel industry. Steel is already being produced with relatively low CO2 emissions using this method. One key way of achieving substantial CO2 reductions is to target indirect emissions through the further expansion of renewable energy at affordable prices.
What role do the downstream processing and distribution stages in steel production play in making a success of the transformation to green steel?
Steel is the starting point for a large number of industrial value chains. A large proportion of the total emissions generated during the life cycle of key steel-intensive capital and consumer goods such as cars and household products is accounted for by CO2 emissions during the manufacturing phase, that is to say material usage. Consequently, the transformation of the steel industry is a prerequisite for decarbonising the entire process chain. However, this will only work if the companies involved in other processing stages, trading and distribution support the transformation by decarbonising their processes, too.
