The availability of affordable clean energy continues to hinder the decarbonization of Europe’s steel industry. Participants at the Association for Iron & Steel Technology’s (AIST) European Steel Forum said innovation is essential to breaking the deadlock. At the same time, energy infrastructure depends on steel just as the steel industry depends on energy supplies.
“Energy is the elephant in the room,” AIST Chairman Ron Ashburn said on Tuesday as he opened the conference in Udine, Italy. A Kallanish correspondent attended the event. Ashburn added that energy is not the only major issue now: artificial intelligence is also becoming a factor reshaping entire industries.
High energy costs in many European countries and a shortage of the green energy needed to transition to environmentally friendly steel production are creating serious challenges for local steelmakers. Forum participants noted that this is slowing the industry’s shift to low-carbon technologies.
If Austria’s voestalpine were to produce steel with net-zero CO₂ emissions using only renewable energy, it would consume “50% of Austria’s energy,” said Thomas Bürgler, CEO of K-1 Met. The research organization was established by voestalpine, Primetals and the universities of Linz and Leoben.
Antonio Marcegaglia, head of the Marcegaglia family-owned group, also addressed the issue. Affordable clean energy in Europe is available only in the Nordic countries and, to a lesser extent, in the south, where solar power can be used, he said. Hydropower and wind power are not suitable for every region.
“We are putting a lot of effort into renewable energy, but when you look at the return on investment, it is disproportionately low,” Marcegaglia said. In his view, nuclear power could be one possible option.
However, nuclear power is not an option for Stahl-Holding Saar (SHS) and its subsidiaries Dillinger and Saarstahl. The reason is not only Germany’s ban on its use, but also EU directives that do not allow nuclear energy to be counted when approving funding.
“That is the situation under the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive, RED II,” Wim van der Stricht of the European Steel Technology Platform (ESTEP) told Kallanish on the sidelines of the conference. The organization is now working on a third version of the directive, he said.
“Steel needs energy, and energy needs steel,” Ashburn said, describing the mutual dependence of the two industries. “Innovation will determine the winners — those who adapt sooner than the rest,” he said.
Ashburn called for active support for research and development. “If we get everything right, we will help the planet, and everyone will benefit,” he said.
Concluding his remarks, he drew the audience’s attention to AIST campaigns, which are supported, among others, by ArcelorMittal and SSAB. Their goal is to tell the general public about the uses of steel.
Author: Christian Köhl, Germany