“We see an encouraging trend that green steel investment announcements are spreading globally with more and more projects outside the EU. However, this positive development for green steel needs to further accelerate as new investments in unmitigated coal-based blast furnaces are still being made in growing economies despite their large emissions”, commented Max Åhman, Associate Professor (Docent) and Head of Division, Environment & Energy Systems at Lund University.
The updated Green Steel Tracker, which includes data on all 99 projects, is available for free download on LeadIT’s website. The tool actively monitors publicly announced investments in primary steel production, revealing insights into the evolving landscape of green projects.
Notably, the latest data highlights two new project announcements in Germany, the only new investments in Europe, a region that previously dominated the tracker. In a significant development, China, the world’s largest steel producer, has disclosed for the first time detailed information about a major green steel project. This is an investment of USD 683 million by HBIS Group in a green hydrogen direct reduction (H-DRI) project in Naiman Banner, Inner Mongolia. H-DRI using renewably sourced hydrogen remains the dominant technology in new green steel projects. This trend is evident in the latest project announcements beyond Europe, including a major initiative from Oman aimed at utilizing H-DRI in a location with potential renewable energy sources.
The data indicates a slight decrease in the pace of green steel project announcements from 2023 to 2024, compared to the boom in announcements from 2020 to 2021.
Reflecting on this trend, Per Andersson, Head of the LeadIT Secretariat, said, “We observe more new green steel projects being announced outside Europe for the first time. Do we see a growing confidence in technologies demonstrated in Europe in the last few years – maybe?”