New Zealand Steel turns on low-emission electric furnace
Auckland (11 August)
New Zealand Steel – a subsidiary of BlueScope – has produced lower-emission steel using a newly opened electric arc furnace (EAF) at its Glenbrook Steelworks, setting it up to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by over 45%.
The company expects to sell its lower-emission steel from later this year, it said on 10 August.
New Zealand Steel replaced Glenbrook’s oxygen furnace and two of its coal-fuelled kilns with an EAF over two years, it added. The company expects to halve its coal use and cut its annual greenhouse gas emissions by up to one million tonnes of CO2-equivalent by using its EAF to process scrap steel.
It has signed long-term scrap steel supply deals with Sims and GMS – a pair of local metal recycling firms – to support EAF-based steel production, the company said.
“[New Zealand Steel] has been able to undertake [its furnace] transition within a fully operational steelworks, continuing to produce the usual 650,000 tonnes of steel [over two years] to ensure uninterrupted supply to [customers],” BlueScope Chief Executive Australia and New Zealand Robin Davies said.
The New Zealand Government financially supported New Zealand Steel’s EAF transition through its now-defunct Government Investment in Decarbonising Industry (GIDI) fund. It spent NZ$140 million on the NZ$300 million project, according to New Zealand Steel.
Between 2021 and 2023, the Government co-invested NZ$327 million in 73 projects through GIDI, data from the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) show. It expects the projects to cut New Zealand’s annual greenhouse gas emissions by 1.5 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent, EECA data show.
Italian manufacturer Danieli built New Zealand Steel’s EAF, both companies said in 2023.
Danieli plans to build similar furnaces in Australia over the next few years. It has agreed to supply electric furnace technology to Queensland-based Alter Steel and New South Wales-based Greensteel Australia, both of whom expect to produce electric furnace-based steel from 2028.
By Avinash Govind