This new method makes it possible to modulate the climatic note of a steel according to the part of the recycled metal it contains. The steel industry is very critical of this new model.
The reflection organization France Strategy attached to Matignon publishes a crucial, already disputed technical note on Friday, recommended a new method of assessing the climate impact of the manufacture of steel.
This note, much awaited by the world of steel industry, is already criticized by metal recycling manufacturers who accuse him of “distorting the rules of the game” for their disadvantage for the benefit of high stoves highly issuing gas greenhouse effect.
On the technical level, the document promotes in particular a new tool called “floating scale” (“Sliding Scale” in English) allowing to modulate the climatic note of a steel according to the part of the recycled metal it contains. But the higher the proportion of recycled steel, the more the degree of requirement to get a good note too.
For Olivier Le Fixous, president of the metal sector of the Federation Federation Federation, this grid is “scientifically and politically dishonest” because “it places steel produced from recycled scraps on an equal footing with steel Produced from iron ore that arrives from the end of the world “.
“We are not the only ones to sound the alarm, the steel producing steel from scraps do it too. Only an industrialist, ArcelorMittal, has been contacted to establish this new analysis grid, he n 'There was no discussion with the whole profession, “Olivier Le Fichous told AFP.
“Recycling will not be enough”
On Friday, the organization responded to its detractors that “the analyzes of each method of accounting for steel emissions” had been “presented and discussed” with all the actors in the sector “including the representatives of Federec and steel producers from recycled scraps “. These floating scales aim to lower CO2 emissions from primary steel producers, while remaining viable, according to France Strategy.
The organization underlined on Friday with AFP on Friday that these “Slringing Scale” are not new, having “already been put to the debate by various international organizations including the AIE (International Energy Agency)”.
-“The note of France Strategy proposes a nuanced reading, stressing the importance of calibrating it cautiously, in a precisely not to unduly penalize recycling,” added France Strategy which says it wants to “mobilize recycling as much as possible” . Steel recycling from old car bodywork, boats or other sheets is currently one of the main techniques used in the world to decarbonize steel production.
The note nevertheless recognizes that it “will unfortunately not be enough to reach the total” sector decarbonation. In 2019, the recycling of “scraps” only covered 32% of global steel needs, according to the document which cites the IEA.
Disturbance period for the sector
“All recycling remains a distant perspective”, estimate the authors in the note: “2050, scraps will represent only 48% of metallic inputs in steel production.” However, the need for decarbonation is immense to hope to maintain the temperatures of the planet at an acceptable level. With 3.7 GT of CO2 emissions per year, the steel industry is responsible for “nearly 10% of global fossil CO2 emissions”.
The publication comes at a time when European steel manufacturers, including ArcelorMittal, abolish jobs and threaten with words covered to close their high stoves in Europe by relocating their production in non -European countries where energy is cheaper and where They are more competitive in the face of international competition.
Do to Chinese competition
In particular, they require public aid to deal with competition from Chinese steel at low prices which invades the world markets. ArcelorMittal suspended the major decarbonation projects of its high stoves in Dunkirk and Fos-sur-Mer, due to “a level of demand and price of steel reaching a historic low” at the end of November, due to “a historic low”.
This project, encrypted at 1.8 billion euros including public aid of up to 850 million euros, consists in replacing the coal with gas, then by hydrogen in the high stoves to reduce the ore of Iron used to produce primary steel, and to install electric ovens to produce more recycled steel based on scrap metal.