POSCO and Electra will develop technologies for producing clean iron

South Korean steelmaker POSCO has signed a joint development agreement (JDA) with U.S. climate technology company Electra to scale up clean iron production technologies. At the same time, POSCO Investment, the group’s corporate venture capital arm, announced an investment in Electra, underscoring the group’s strategic interest in decarbonizing the steel industry. This was reported in an Electra press release.

The agreement aims to combine the parties’ expertise—POSCO’s experience in steel production and process development with Electra’s electrochemical technology. Electra specializes in producing iron with a purity of up to 99%, which can be used as feedstock for electric arc furnaces (EAFs) in the production of high-quality steel.

The partners plan to test the integration of their technologies on an industrial scale. This involves combining POSCO’s expertise in direct iron reduction with Electra’s innovative Clean Iron system, which will allow them to assess the potential for scaling up low-carbon production.

“POSCO has extensive experience in metallurgy, production technologies, and process development. We are building long-term plans, and this partnership helps us thoughtfully expand our operations, supplying clean iron to an increasing number of customers,” said Electra co-founder and CEO Sandeep Nijhawan.

POSCO emphasizes that the collaboration is intended to create synergy between the innovative solutions of both companies and accelerate the development of decarbonized technologies in steel industry.

POSCO Investment’s investment marks the group’s first overseas strategic investment in the green steel sector. The company emphasizes that this step is particularly significant in the context of the global energy transition and the formation of new low-emission production chains.

As a reminder, in April, the board of directors of India’s JSW Steel Limited approved a joint venture with South Korea’s POSCO Group. Under this venture, the companies will build an integrated steel plant with an initial production capacity of 6 million tons per year in the state of Odisha (India).