Cleveland-Cliffs, which had been awarded a $500 million grant from the Biden administration to finance construction of new, greener equipment at one of its Ohio steelworks, abandoned the initiative and is now working with Trump’s Energy Department to develop a coal-focused scope for the project.
U.S. Steel, whose sale to Japanese rival Nippon Steel was approved by the Trump administration, finds itself at a crossroads. The company has promised some greener investments in the U.S. but has yet to announce any specifics. Its new owner, however, has a reputation as “a coal company that also makes steel” — and Nippon has also promised to invest in upgrading U.S. Steel’s blast furnaces to last longer.
That leaves Hyundai’s project to build a low-carbon steel factory in Louisiana as the flagship push for clean steel in the U.S.
Despite recent challenges from the Trump administration, Hyundai has signaled its commitment to bringing the facility online by 2029. The plant is designed to first use blue hydrogen, the version of the fuel made with fossil gas and carbon capture equipment, to produce the cleaner direct reduced iron. But by the mid-2030s, the facility is expected to switch to green hydrogen, made with electrolyzers powered by renewables.
The low-carbon iron will then be fed into electric arc furnaces to produce steel — making it the first integrated low-carbon steel plant in the U.S. That Louisiana plant could reduce emissions by at least 75% relative to a traditional integrated steel plant with a blast furnace and basic oxygen furnace.
In a sign of progress, Hyundai this month announced plans to test its DRI equipment at an existing steelworks in South Korea in anticipation of bringing the technology to Louisiana.
Once that Louisiana plant comes online, Groch said, it’s expected to generate enough steel to meet Hyundai’s needs and supply additional potential buyers — opening up an opportunity for other automakers. In its report, Mighty Earth calls on automakers to commit to buying more green steel in the coming years.
General Motors and Ford have committed to buying at least 10% green steel by 2030 as part of a pledge via the First Movers Coalition, led by the World Economic Forum. Other global carmakers not included in Mighty Earth’s report, such as Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW, have adopted separate targets. Honda, Stellantis, and Toyota, meanwhile, have avoided making such promises.
Holding car companies to those targets has proved challenging. While some companies have vowed to slash emissions by buying more low-carbon steel, a September 2024 report by the International Council on Clean Transportation found that carmakers’ pledges to buy fossil-free steel by 2030 cover less than 2% of their total demand for the metal.
“We’re not asking for everyone to have 100% green steel,” Groch said. “But these are their commitments, and the car companies are the ones driving investment in steel.”
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Great Job Alexander Kaufman & the Team @ Canary Media Source link for sharing this story.
