Carbon Neutrality Roadmap Unveiled
Andong-il: "Building an Eco-Friendly Steel Company"
Hyundai Steel unveiled its carbon neutrality roadmap on the 26th, aiming to reduce direct and indirect emissions by 12% by 2030 to achieve net zero by 2050.
Through a video presentation on the day, Hyundai Steel CEO Andong-il stated, “Global advanced countries are focusing on protecting their domestic industries and securing competitiveness in connection with climate change,” adding, “Carbon neutrality is not a choice but a necessity, and we will concentrate all of Hyundai Steel’s capabilities to secure new growth engines and become a sustainable eco-friendly steel company.”
Hyundai Steel explained that it decided to pursue carbon neutrality as a way to overcome the global environment where carbon emission-related regulations such as the EU’s CBAM and the US’s GSSA are being promoted.
Andong-il, President of Hyundai Steel, is explaining the 2050 carbon neutrality roadmap. [Photo by Hyundai Steel]
Hyundai Steel plans to first establish an “Electric Arc Furnace (EAF)-Blast Furnace (BF) hybrid process” production system aimed at producing low-carbon automotive-grade steel while maintaining the quality of blast furnace products. In the first phase, it will apply a method of mixing low-carbon molten iron produced using existing electric arc furnaces into the blast furnace and converter process. In the second phase, Hyundai Steel will build a new proprietary electric arc furnace and introduce steel with approximately 40% reduced carbon emissions to the market by 2030.
The new electric arc furnace will incorporate Hyundai Steel’s proprietary “Hy-Cube” technology, a low-carbon product production system. Hy-Cube is a core technology that minimizes carbon emissions by mixing steel scrap, carbon-neutral molten iron from blast furnaces, and hydrogen-reduced direct reduced iron in the new electric arc furnace, while producing premium-grade steel sheets.
The low-carbon products produced in this way will be branded under Hyundai Steel’s unique brand “HyECOsteel” and supplied to major global customers. Hyundai Steel already has experience producing and supplying automotive steel sheets using electric arc furnaces, and in October last year, it succeeded in the world’s first trial production of 1.0 GPa-class low-carbon premium steel sheets using an electric arc furnace.
Hyundai Steel is currently participating in the Korean energy efficiency innovation partnership “KEEP30,” continuously promoting the establishment of a practical energy management system and innovation activities. It also plans to develop carbon reduction technologies and energy-saving measures for the blast furnace process in the future.
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