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While Europe and North America remain more mature markets for green steel commercialization, recent developments in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Peru suggest Latin American producers are increasingly seeking international positioning for emissions transparency, energy efficiency, recycling capacity and decarbonization strategies.
The movement also highlights a broader regional discussion that extends beyond environmental positioning itself. Steelmakers, industry associations and sustainability organizations are increasingly debating how Latin America’s structural advantages – including hydropower generation, scrap availability, renewable energy potential and bio-based steelmaking inputs – could shape the region’s role in future low-carbon steel supply chains.
At the same time, the region still faces important challenges, from aging industrial assets and infrastructure limitations to uneven access to investment and the absence of a mature green steel premium market.
In an exclusive interview with Fastmarkets on Friday May 15, Global Steel Climate Council (GSCC) executive director Adina Renee Adler said the recent acceleration in certifications reflects a broader global movement that is now gaining momentum in Latin America.
“This is already a growing trend in much of the rest of the world, and to see producers in Latin America start to get involved is a very positive thing,” Adler said.
According to the GSCC executive, the drivers behind sustainability strategies vary between companies and regions, ranging from customer requirements and supply-chain transparency to competitiveness, investor expectations and long-term industrial positioning.
“Every company, no matter where they are in the world, has their own different reason or driver for wanting to set a sustainability strategy,” she said.
One of the latest examples came from Mexican long steel producer Deacero, which became the first Mexican company to receive certifications from the GSCC after obtaining recognition for Corporate Average Steel Emissions Intensity (CASEI) and Science-Based Emissions Target (SBET).
Adler said the certification reflects growing demand from industrial buyers seeking independently verified emissions information and science-based carbon accounting.
“Deacero is a great example,” she said. “They have customers that are starting to be very, very interested in sourcing low-emission steel as part of their own sustainability strategies.”
The executive added that sustainability claims increasingly require verification mechanisms capable of providing transparency and credibility to customers and supply chains.
“It’s not enough to just ask the company if they’re sustainable,” Adler said. “Customers want to know the carbon footprint. They want to know that the carbon footprint has been measured against a science-based methodology and reviewed by a third party.”
Adopted in August 2023, the GSCC Steel Climate Standard is a global benchmark for measuring and reporting steel carbon emissions. It provides a science-based framework for members to obtain third-party certification of facility-specific emissions intensity and conduct annual audits demonstrating ongoing decarbonization progress.
The recent recognitions awarded across Latin America have involved different approaches to sustainability performance.
In Brazil, Gerdau was recognized for the first time as a Steel Sustainability Champion by the World Steel Association (worldsteel) during the association’s annual meeting in Berlin on April 14.
The recognition is granted to steelmakers meeting more than 20 sustainability criteria linked to environmental, social, governance and economic indicators, as well as life-cycle inventory disclosures and participation in global sustainability initiatives.
Meanwhile, Colombian steel producer Diaco announced on April 4 that it had obtained Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) across its construction steel portfolio, including rebar, wire rod and mesh products.
According to the company, the certification allows customers and developers to measure environmental impacts throughout the full product lifecycle – including emissions, energy consumption and water usage – while also strengthening access to financing and ESG-linked procurement processes.
Diaco added that up to 98% of the raw material used in its rebar production comes from recycled ferrous scrap, while the company has avoided more than 600,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions through circularity and operational efficiency initiatives.
“The transition toward materials with verifiable environmental information is no longer just a trend but a condition for future competitiveness,” the company said in its release.
In Peru, Aceros Arequipa announced that it had become the first steelmaker in the country to receive the ISO 50001 certification, focused on energy management systems and efficiency improvements.
“This achievement reflects our commitment to energy efficiency and sustainability, fundamental pillars for a modern, innovative and low-carbon steel industry,” the company said.
The growing number of certifications comes as Latin America increasingly promotes itself as a region with structural advantages for lower-emissions steel production.
Adler highlighted Brazil’s hydropower capacity, renewable energy availability, scrap generation and use of bio-based carbon inputs as examples of strengths that could support future decarbonization efforts.
“Feeding mills with hydropower is a really powerful strategy for low-emission steel,” Adler said. “We have several companies using biochar or charcoal instead of anthracite in the steelmaking process.”
Brazil and other Latin American countries have also expanded scrap recycling and electric-arc furnace (EAF) steel production over recent years, particularly in long steel products such as rebar and structural steel.
“The easiest way to decarbonize is to consume more scrap,” Adler said. “Construction-grade products like rebar and structural steel can be made with up to 100% scrap.”
Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), domestic, weekly, exw Brazil was 3,500-3,800 Reais ($692-751) per tonne on Friday May 15, flat from the previous week.
Fastmarkets’ price assessment for steel reinforcing bar (rebar), delivered Monterrey, Mexico was 16,500-16,900 pesos ($949-971) per tonne on Thursday May 14, narrowing downward by 300 pesos per tonne from 16,500-17,200 pesos per tonne the previous week.
But the region’s natural advantages do not eliminate the structural constraints that continue to shape the pace of the transition.
Many Latin American steel assets operate in industrial regions where access to infrastructure, capital, electricity, water and transport remains uneven. Modernization also requires high investment, particularly when producers need to replace or adapt aging equipment and expand lower-emissions production routes such as electric-arc furnaces.
Adler noted, however, that steel decarbonization in emerging regions cannot depend only on individual mill-level decisions. The transition also requires conditions capable of supporting new industrial demand, higher-quality production and lower-emissions technologies.
“What helps to reinvigorate or invigorate an industry always is commercial demand, customer demand,” she said. “To the extent that you still have customers, but they want next-generation made products, maybe they are in more demand for low-emissions steel, or maybe they’re in more demand for higher-quality, higher-tech made steel – that’s where you can really stimulate opportunity for the transition of the steel-producing industry.”
That demand, however, needs to be supported by broader infrastructure and policy conditions, particularly in regions where industrial assets are located far from large urban or logistics centers.
“Obviously, that will probably come with some government support in terms of infrastructure built out,” the director said. “Not only the plants themselves, although they probably will require investment, but it might be road infrastructure, electrical grid connectivity, this kind of investment.”
The transition, she added, needs to be treated as a broader industrial-development strategy, rather than a narrow steelmaking issue.
“If you need to get employees out to the side where a mill is, then build schools, hospitals and communities,” she added. “It has to be a holistic strategy that’s done in concert with the government.”
For Latin America, this means the same factors that can slow the transition – infrastructure, financing, logistics and technological modernization – may also become areas where coordinated investment could unlock the region’s natural advantages.
“There are enough of these strategies that can really build the reputation of the steel-producing industry to maybe attract the capital to upgrade and reinvigorate the industries,” Adler said. “But it’ll certainly have to be done in collaboration with governments who can have a vision, which will require the external infrastructure…”
The role of industrial buyers is another key part of that process.
Globally, demand for lower-emissions steel is increasingly coming from downstream sectors that need to reduce the carbon footprint of their own supply chains. Automotive buyers remain more advanced in this process, according to the GSCC, while construction is moving more slowly but increasingly seeking environmental data and traceability.
“Some of them are doing it for their own reputation; some of them are doing it because of their investors; others are doing it for regulations,” Adler said, referring to industrial buyers demanding environmental verification.
“The construction sector is a little bit further behind the auto sector in terms of demanding their suppliers produce low-emission [steel], as well as disclose the data that proves that the products are low-emission,” she added. “But we’re definitely seeing an uptick in this.”
This buyer-driven dynamic is particularly relevant for Latin American steelmakers with exposure to international markets and global customers, where investments in lower-emissions and sustainability practices may increasingly become strategic mechanisms for maintaining competitiveness and access to business flows – particularly with regions such as Europe, which has intensified carbon-border measures including the CBAM.
In the US, Adler said, the expansion of electric-arc furnace production was driven largely by innovation and cost competitiveness, rather than regulation or environmental policy. In Europe, by contrast, the transition is being accelerated by government regulation and support.
In Latin America, the current increase in sustainability certifications appears to be more commercially driven, particularly among companies looking to remain competitive with producers in North America, Europe and North Asia.
Even so, the commercialization of green steel in Latin America remains at a much earlier stage than the certification movement itself, and green premiums are still something to be built up.
From the GSCC’s perspective, she noted, wider participation in emissions-reduction standards can help expand supply, while stronger customer demand can support market development over time.
“The more companies that participate with us, implementing our standard, taking measures to lower emissions in the production, the more uptake there is, the more positive impact we have on the environment,” Adler said and added, “The more demand there is for low-emission steel, the more supply will come. That means over time, the unit price will come down, and we don’t even have to be talking about a price premium anymore, as the unit cost will normalize.”
“That’s why we need more companies to join our journey, but we also need more consumers to be creating that demand, to be consuming these materials.”
For now, Latin America’s sustainability push remains defined by both progress and unanswered questions. The recent certifications show that producers in the region are increasingly engaging with global low-carbon standards, while the next stage will depend on whether customer demand, infrastructure investment and market liquidity can turn those recognitions into a broader commercial reality.
Fastmarkets’ Trade Flow Analysis models future shifts in import volumes, supplier competitiveness, prices, and carbon exposure across products, countries, and CN codes through 2035