b'10American Journal of Transportation ajot.com(PUSHcontinued fromto a company announcement.After spike, steel prices wont be sinking page 8) In January, iron ore miner Thesteelindustrycur- andsteelmakerCleveland-rentlyis among the biggestCliffs Inc. announced that itanytime soonindustrial producers of carbonis targeting a 25% reduction dioxide globally. Every ton ofin greenhouse gas emissionsBy Peter Buxbaum, AJOTsteel produces an average ofby2030.Thecompanys 1.85tonsofcarbondioxide,Burns Harbor, Indiana, facil- Steel prices have been rising precipitously As in many sectors, 2020 was a story of about8%ofglobalcarbonity will collaborate with twosince the depth of the pandemic lows, leadingtwo halves for the steel industry, with demand dioxide emissions. Steel pro- technologycompaniesonasome to believe that price relief may be on thetanking during the first half and spiking during ducers, the McKinsey reportcarboncaptureprojectthatway for steel buyers. There is some evidencethe second, driven by industries such as auto-concluded,needtoassess,will represent an industrial- that the upward momentum of steel prices ismotiveandconstruction.Steelmakers evaluate,anddecideonascalesolutiontocaptureslowing, but its too soon to hope for a dropare seeing strong order booking in automo-technologically and economi- greenhouse gases from blast- in prices. tive, noted a recent report from Zacks, an callyviablewaytodecreasefurnaceoperations,saidIn2021,increaseddemandforsteelasinvestments research firm. The automotive their carbon footprint. Cleveland-Cliffs chief execu- the economy recovers is a near certainty. Therebound is driving demand for flat steel prod-That effort is now beingtive Lourenco Goncalves.question remains whether supply will increaseucts globally.undertakenbytechnologyThe company also com- quicker than demand. In February, the bench- (The recent disruption in auto manufactur-concerns and steel companiesmitted toevaluatingtheusemarkpriceforhot-rolledcoil(HRC)steeling came as a result of a shortage of micro-around the world. The effortsof hydrogen in its new hot bri- stood at $1,180 per ton, an all-time high.chips, a supply-chain blip that does not reflect fallintotwobuckets.Thequetted iron plant in Toledo,Steelindexpricesincreasedover$500on steel demand.)firstinvolvesreducing,butOhio. Goncalves said Cleve- per ton from August through the end of theThe construction sector has also bounced not eliminating, emissions inland-Cliffscouldreplaceupyear,notedMarkMillett,CEOofSteelback, as projects that were stalled earlier due blastfurnacesthatuseironto30%oftheplantsnatu- Dynamics, a company headquartered in Fortto the pandemic resume. According to Zacks, ore as the primary raw mate- ralgasconsumptionwithWayne, Indiana. Fourth quarter 2020 develop- thenon-residentialconstructionmarket rial,usingcarbon-capturehydrogen with few modifica- ments were particularly favorable for the com- remains resilient.technologyorbyreplacingtions, a process which couldpany, as its average selling prices rose by $80The prospects of an infrastructure spend-coalwithcleaner-burning(PUSHcontinued onper ton while average ferrous scrap raw mate- ing package out of Washington this year is reducing agents. Reduction ispage 15) rial prices increased by only $20 per ton. (SPIKEcontinued on page 14)the process of pulling oxygen out of iron oxide ore.C arbonn eutraltoThe second involves tech- WE KNOWnologies that have the potential makesteelmanufacturing carbon neutral. These electric-arc furnaces typically use steel scrap as the raw material and electricity in the reducing pro- PEOPLEcess.Onetechnologyunder developmentuseselectricity to reduce iron ore.InOctober2020,Kobe Steel demonstrated a technol-ogy at the companys facility inHyogoPrefecture,Japan, thatreduceslevelsofCO2 emissions from blast-furnace operations.Thetestveri-fiedthatthereducingagent rate(RAR),ameasureof the carbon fuel used in blast-furnace ironmaking, could be reduced by 20% using natural gas as the reductant.Thatsamemonth,Rio Tinto,oneoftheworlds largestminingandmetals companies, and Nippon Steel Corporation,Japanslargest steel producer, agreed to jointly developdecarbonizationtech-nologiestobeintegratedinto bothcompaniesprocesses. We began by examining our CO2reductionscenariosand set goals for 2030 and 2050, said Eiji Hashimoto, president of Nippon Steel Corporation.NLMKGroup,thelarg-eststeelmakerinRussia, completedanenvironmentalMexicomadeeasy.upgradeinFebruaryofits blast-furnace infrastructure in Lipetskinconjunctionwith acapacityexpansionatthat location. A system to capture thedustgeneratedduring hotmetalproductionwas deployed, ensuring a purifica-tion efficiency of 99.9% and reducingemissionsby200 tons per year. The new equip-ment also uses gas as a sec-ondary energy source. After an upgrade of air heaters is com-pleted in 2022, the reduction1000 Foust Rd., Brownsville, TX 78521(956) 831-45921-800-378-5395ingrossemissionswilltotalportofbrownsville.com7,700 tons per year, according'