Global steel carbon standards needed: SDI

The world needs to enact global carbon standards for green steel to level the playing field, Steel Dynamics' (SDI) chief financial officer said today at a conference.

Carbon reduction pushes from regulators, investors, and customers are combining to push carbon reduction in steelmaking, chief financial officer Theresa Wagler told participants of the Global Steel Dynamics Forum in New York today. A lack of a global standard is lessening the ability of lower carbon steel producers to take advantage and see financial gain from a premium price from these initiatives.

"You have to define premium steel," Wagler said. "We need a global standard. If we're lowering the carbon inputs across the global economy, we have to measure things apples to apples."

Wagler said that North American steel producers should be categorized separately from the rest of the world because the region is producing the majority of its steel using scrap-based electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking, which has a lower carbon intensity than traditional basic oxygen furnace/blast furnace-based (BOF/BF) steelmaking. The majority of global steelmaking is BOF/BF-based.

The industry needs to also create better measurement tools to allow for comparisons between different steelmakers for buyers like original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and steel service centers.

Twenty percent of SDI's investor base is European and Asian, Wagler said — two regions that are particularly interested in making carbon reductions

Additionally, most of the decarbonization focus currently is on the flat-rolled side of the steel industry, with long products not facing as much scrutiny, Wagler said.

By Rye Druzin