At the Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) World Recycling Convention & Exhibition in Abu Dhabi, the bureau’s Ferrous Division focused on the consequences for recyclers as the steel industry looks to decarbonize. The division stated that the scrap sector looks for growth as mills drive towards green steel production.
Recalling that the World Economic Forum said that 6.5 billion mt of recycled materials will be needed between now and 2050 for the energy transition and stating that “this is not possible without increasing metals recycling”, Kedar Joshi, Asian markets manager of India-based Davis Index, stated that integrated mills will have to increase scrap utilization for a lower carbon footprint, and higher demand for finished products with different environmental, social and corporate governance and carbon footprint ratings would boost scrap utilization. Mr. Joshi stated that the growing protectionism regarding recycled steel, which is subject to export restrictions or export bans by more than 60 countries, changes traditional trade routes. “We are at the beginning of a 30-year demand super-cycle for recycled steel,” he added.
Another guest speaker Davide Braga, head of global capital equipment sales at Italy-based Danieli Centro Recycling, said that steel demand would continue to grow slowly to 2050 with mills looking to cut carbon emissions by between 70 percent and 90 percent by then. Noting that the switch towards electric arc furnaces would double their share of the production by 2050 and include a significant increase in direct reduced iron production, Mr. Braga added that more than an extra 300 million mt of scrap per year would be needed to feed the additional EAF production in the transition to green steel.
According to BIR’s data, 630 million mt of recycled steel are used each year in global steel production, thereby preventing almost 950 million mt of carbon emissions while also saving energy.