CRU: The Immense Decarbonization Challenge Facing the Steel Industry

By CRU Senior Analyst Ryan Smith and Senior Consultant Sarah Macnaughton, from CRU’s Crude Steel Market Outlook

Climate change is moving up the political agenda and putting increasing pressure on heavy industry to reduce their CO2 emissions. As the largest producer of global industrial CO2 emissions, the steel sector has a clear role to play in meeting emission reduction targets. There are a variety of options available to steelmakers to reduce the CO2 intensity of their steelmaking—from improving process efficiency to fundamental changes to plant technology. Research to date has largely focused on breakthrough technologies such as hydrogen steelmaking or carbon capture/reuse. But are these the only options and, given the capital intensity of steel production, how do they fit within the industry in its present day form?