Understanding the demand for Green Steel, page-250

Green steel: Why this is a make-or-break decade | Spectra (mhi.com)




Another key factor is global demand for steel, which is projected to increase 30% by 2050, with resource-hungry emerging economies responsible for much of that growth. Around 80% of the world’s new coal-fired steelmaking capacity is located in the emerging economies of China and its neighbors in Asia, which could leave them locked into carbon-based production for decades. Heavy reliance on coal-based steel could also expose these emerging economies to the risk of their steelmaking assets becoming stranded.

Regions such as the US, Australia, the Middle East and North Africa will have greater access to the clean hydrogen made from renewable sources that is needed to produce sustainable steel. And countries like China and India that have invested heavily in traditional blast furnaces need these investments to pay for themselves over the coming decades. Sustainable steel also commands a premium price, so establishing a market will depend on having the right policy and investment framework in place to encourage uptake — while also ensuring that current steelmaking assets do not become stranded. Yet despite the premium price tag, sustainability is becoming an important aspect of buying behavior."

I highlighted blast furnaces to highlight the importance of diversifying our product range to not only cater for DRI tech but to also cater for blast furnaces in developing countries. It is highly likely that China and India will implement a mix of carbon capturing tech + DR grade pellets (to reduce slag/power consumption/carbon emissions) to reduce their carbon footprint with their traditional blast furnaces as they do not have access to hydrogen/renewable energy that we Australians do.

Hopefully MGT will consider supplying DR grade pellets for blast furnaces in their optimization study/DFS. It will derisk our project significantly as we are able to cater to the old/aging market (blast furnaces) and new emerging tech (DRI/EAF route). Time will tell.

GO MGT!