Mumbai: ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India (AM/NS India), a joint venture between ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel, two prominent steelmakers globally, has released its inaugural Climate Action Report today, detailing immediate measures aimed at expediting and decarbonizing India’s progress.
The report marks a significant juncture for India’s steel industry, coinciding with the nation’s aspirations to achieve a $5 trillion economy and become the world’s third-largest economy by 2026-27.
Aditya Mittal, Chairman of AM/NS India, emphasized the company’s commitment to confronting the challenge of separating development from emissions as both the company and the country expand. He highlighted projections indicating a potential 200% surge in sector emissions by 2050 without transformative changes in steel production. Mittal announced AM/NS India’s goal to further reduce emission intensity by an additional 20% and outlined a roadmap towards achieving net-zero emissions in the long run. He noted that AM/NS India presently boasts one of the lowest emissions intensities among integrated steel producers in India, having slashed emissions intensity by a third since 2015.
Dilip Oommen, CEO of AM/NS India, underscored the commitment of both parent companies, ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel, to attain Net Zero status by 2050. Oommen emphasized the pivotal moment for AM/NS India to articulate its near-term decarbonization strategy, outlining specific commitments and actions across various fronts and timelines. The report also presents a roadmap to facilitate long-term progress by addressing key challenges collaboratively among industry, government, and civil society.
The strategy delineates AM/NS India’s immediate decarbonization plan, aiming to enhance operational efficiency, ramp up renewable energy sources to achieve a 100% green grid by 2030, and increase scrap utilization in steelmaking to expedite decarbonization. Additionally, the company is focused on designing blast furnace steel plants with flexibility to adopt lower carbon processes like hydrogen-based steelmaking in the future.
AM/NS India is also investing in breakthrough technologies for achieving net-zero steel production, including initiatives related to green hydrogen and carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS). The company is collaborating with leading energy companies and research institutions to explore and deploy these technologies effectively.
Furthermore, the report recommends ambitious policy interventions to accelerate progress, including improving demand signals, supporting infrastructure for a low-carbon economy, providing tax incentives for green manufacturing, attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) in low-carbon steel, increasing research and development (R&D) in hydrogen, and enhancing the availability of scrap.
