Greater use of scrap in the steelmaking process will be an important step toward achieving a sharp drop in CO2 emissions, the Japan Iron and Steel Federation (Jisf) said.
"We support and contribute to Japan's ambitious policy of carbon neutrality by 2050 and to that end, the Japanese steel industry will boldly take on the challenge of achieving zero-carbon steel," the federation said on Tuesday February 16.
Meeting the ambitious target will mean developing innovative technology and exploring approaches such as hydrogen direct-reduction steelmaking, together with 'expanding scrap use,' Jisf said.
Japanese steel output from the scrap-intensive electric-arc furnace (EAF) route totaled 21.15 million tonnes in 2020, down 13% year on year, while basic oxygen furnace (BOF) output was at 62.50 million tonnes, down 17.3% compared with 2019, Jisf said.
BOF output...