China’s HBIS collaborates with Vale to advance steel decarbonization

Chinese steelmaker HBIS group signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with iron ore mining giant Vale to promote decarbonization in the steel value chain, both companies said on Thursday.

Both parties will jointly identify optimal burden solutions for low-carbon transition and exploring the feasibility of using the Tecnored furnace to treat solid waste and extract valuable metals, they said.

“The signing of the MoU on the cooperation for decarbonization of the steel industry value chain represents a joint action by two major international enterprises in the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain to address climate change,” HBIS chairman Liu Jian said in a statement on the company’s WeChat account.

Both HBIS and Vale aim to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

Liu also hopes both sides will explore breakthrough decarbonization technologies such as circular economy, hydrogen metallurgy and carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS).

Steelmakers across the world have sought cooperation with upstream mining giants for green transition in the hard-to-abate steel sector that has contributed to 7% of global carbon dioxide emission.

(By Amy Lv and Colleen Howe; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)