Cargill Metals and Blastr Green Steel signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to supply steel produced without the use of fossil fuels in the Nordic region of northern Europe.
The firms will combine efforts to accelerate the development of these projects, which promises to facilitate significant carbon savings for the global steel industry. Cargill Metals will bring its expertise in raw materials sourcing as well as ocean transportation and logistics capabilities to the collaboration. Blastr will bring its industrial decarbonization expertise, entrepreneurial business skills, access to capital and its regional knowledge of sites, opportunities and local support.
"Solving the decarbonization challenge of the steel industry requires new and innovative partnerships," said Lee Kirk, Managing Director, Cargill Metals, "We are thrilled to partner with Blastr and collaborate on bringing meaningful carbon reduction to this vital to abate sector. It brings us one step closer to our goal of shaping a responsible and sustainable ferrous supply chain that helps the world thrive."
As per an independent market analysis, there is a market shortfall in supply of green steel and demand is expected to increase from below 5 metric tons in 2021 to 200 metric tons in 2030.
"Ensuring the long-term supply of raw materials at required quantity and quality is crucial for providing green steel to the market with an absolute minimum of CO2 emissions through the entire value chain," said Dag Moxnes, CEO at Blastr. "Cargill offers a unique combination of access to regional raw materials, expertise, network and logistics solutions, which brings us a long step closer to realizing our joint Nordic green steel project."
The next phase of this cooperation will involve final technology selection, location, final mix of products and access to green power.
The steel industry worldwide is exploring new methods of decarbonizing their output. Earlier this year, British Steel announced it was collaborating with energy firm EDF UK, University College London and the Materials Processing Institute to study the use of green hydrogen instead of natural gas for reheating furnaces.
In November 2021, Algoma Steel’s board of directors announced the company will replace its existing blast furnace and basic oxygen steel operations for two electric arc furnaces. The move is expected to cut Algoma’s carbon emissions by about 70 percent.
Another example is ArcelorMittal, which is utilizing French government funding to decarbonize steelmaking at its sites in Fos-sur-Mer and Dunkirk.
