BHP and SAIL to cooperate in decarbonizing steel production

The largest state-owned steel producer in India, Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), and Australian mining company BHP will cooperate to support the decarbonization of steel production. This is stated in the message of BHP.

The parties signed a memorandum of understanding. As noted, this cooperation is an important step in promoting low-carbon steel production technologies for blast furnaces in India.

The parties are already exploring a number of areas of work that support the potential decarbonization of SAIL’s blast furnace steel plants, starting with a scoping study to evaluate various strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

This work will consider the role of alternative reductants for the blast furnace (hydrogen, biogas). The assessment aims to build local R&D capacity to support the green transition.

“The need to bring the steel sector in line with climate commitments is not up for debate. SAIL is committed to contributing to the solution to climate change by fostering an innovative future for India’s steel industry,” said Shri Amarendu Prakash, Chairman of SAIL.

As noted, this cooperation is an important step for BHP in supporting low-carbon steelmaking technologies for blast furnace production in India. The latter is a key growth country for the steel industry according to the program recently released in BHP’s 2024 Climate Transition Action Plan.

As GMK Center reported earlier, mining companies Rio Tinto and BHP Group will team up with Australian rolled steel producer BlueScope Steel to explore the development of Australia’s first pilot electric smelting facility (ESF) to produce green pig iron.