Metinvest aiming to cut carbon emissions by 40% by 2040 – reports

Ukraine’s largest national steelmaker, Metinvest, plans to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 15% by 2030, and by 40% by 2040, according to media reports

In 2020, the company’s direct greenhouse gas emissions, excluding associates and joint ventures, was 23.2 million tonnes of direct carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent, according to Metinvest’s website.

The company will start replacing blast furnaces (BFs) with electric-arc furnaces (EAFs) in 2028 when it expects to have ramped up production at its direct-reduced iron (DRI) module, according to a report by Reuters.

Speaking at Fastmarkets’ Middle East Iron & Steel (MEIS) event in December, Metinvest sales director Dmitriy Nikolayenko said: “[Steelmaking using EAFs] emits carbon but it in smaller volumes than BF and basic oxygen furnace-based producers. But there is a problem in changing to EAF-based steelmaking [is that the] world requires more steel than we can produce from collected scrap, so we need more new iron to satisfy global steel demand.”

DRI can be used to substitute or complement scrap in EAFs, and while DRI-based production emits CO2, it is much lower than the amount produced by BFs.

“We are considering substituting existing BFs with DRI modules,” Nikolayenko said, adding that Metinvest was considering different locations for DRI modules.

Nikolayenko said Metinvest would also start a flotation project at its Severny GOK mining and beneficiation plant, with the aim of producing 12 million tonnes per year of high-grade concentrate to be used as a feed for DR-grade pellet production, needed for making DRI. 

The Severny facility will have the capacity to produce about 2.67 million tpy of both DR- and blast furnace-grade pellets, Fastmarkets understands.

Metinvest already produces DR pellets at its Central GOK site, which has capacity to make 2.25 million tpy of pellets.

What to read next
Nickel pig iron (NPI) is a key feedstock material used for stainless steel production, and the CIF has grown to become one of the mainstream trading methods for the Chinese market. The proposed price assessment will allow Fastmarkets to bring more transparency to the Chinese NPI market. Fastmarkets has been tracking spot and DDP China […]
Fastmarkets proposes to amend the specifications of its weekly price assessment for MB-STE-0037 steel rebar domestic exw Italy to better reflect the material traded in the market.
The purpose of this review is to ensure that the index continues to accurately reflect prevailing market conditions. We welcome feedback from industry participants on potential amendments to the base specification. This consultation, which is open until August 9, 2025 seeks to ensure that our methodologies continue to reflect the physical market under indexation, in […]
Key talking points from the 75th anniversary event of European steel distributors’ association Eurometal, held July 2-3 in Luxembourg and attended by Fastmarkets.
Mexico’s production and consumption of long steel fell year-on-year in May due to weakness in the country's construction sector, but posted a month on month gain, according to the latest data from the Mexican steel chamber, CANACERO.
Charcoal-based pig iron can potentially support decarbonization strategies in the EU, despite not being widely used in the region, delegates were told at Fastmarkets' International Iron Ore & Green Steel Summit, held June 17-19 in Barcelona.