Sources: Steel Manufacturers Association, Washington, D.C.; CP staff
Domestic producers of concrete rebar, structural members and other hot-rolled steel products in construction markets or beyond will enjoy a strong recycling message in perpetuity, based on projections in the just published “A Transition towards Scrap-based EAFs Accelerates the Competitiveness and Decarbonization of the American Steel Industry.” Electric arc furnace (EAF) steel accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. production, the study notes, and is expected to make up 90 percent by 2040. The shift from legacy processes that depend primarily on coal and iron ore to newer alternatives that use electricity to turn scrap iron into new steel dramatically reduces carbon emissions associated with finished products for construction or other end uses.
Prepared by Laplace Conseil, a metal and mineral industries consultant with offices near Paris, the “Transition” study contends that enough domestic ferrous scrap is available for EAF steelmakers to supply nearly all the steel the United States needs. Author and noted steel expert Marcel Genet finds that the prospective U.S. scrap supply already tops 4 billion tons and keeps growing. “This robust reservoir is supplemented by a rising global supply, which can support a transition toward a higher share of EAF steelmaking,” he observes. “[S]crap quality is improving too and is not a limitation to producing even the most advanced grades and types of steel.”
“The study from Laplace Conseil confirms what steelmakers in America and around the world already know: the future of steel is in recycling, not mining,” adds SMA President Philip Bell. “The availability of scrap and the quality of low-emissions production means that in the United States, in particular, the need for high-emissions steelmaking in blast furnaces and basic oxygen furnaces is diminishing. That change is good news for the environment and the competitiveness of American manufacturing.”