Role of green steel

Green steel will play an important role in reshaping the future of the industry as the world moves towards a low-carbon economy, the Economic Survey for 2023-24 has said.

The concept of green steel promotes the production of steel using green energy sources and minimizing the usage of fossil fuels.

“As the world moves towards a low-carbon economy, green steel is poised to play a pivotal role in reshaping the future of the steel industry,” said the Survey.

India’s steel sector accounts for 12 per cent of India's greenhouse gas emissions with an emission intensity of 2.5 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of crude steel compared to the global average of 1.9 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of crude steel, it said.

The Survey also said that India remained a net importer of steel during the first, second and third quarters of FY24 because of price differentials between international and domestic prices of finished steel.

Low prices in the international markets led to reduced profit margins for exports and made imports more affordable, affecting the trade balance in the steel sector, it said.

The import dependence on coking coal, an essential raw material for steel production also went up from 56.1 MT in FY23 to 58.1 MT in FY24, the Survey said.

The Survey also highlighted that many technologies required for global net zero are commercially unavailable, such as hydrogen-fuelled steel/cement, steel and aluminium production with (Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage) CCUS, etc.

“There is a need to enhance international cooperation in R&D, especially in the domains of distributed RE, offshore wind, geothermal, tidal energy, biofuels, compressed biogas, green hydrogen, energy storage, electrolysers, and nuclear power (including small modular reactors SMR),” it said.