ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India (AM/NS India) is aiming to undertake about 70 per cent of its steel production by 2027, across several of the company’s product lines, through green technology processes and technology. The company plans to achieve the target through use of renewable energy, scrap processing at its facilities and use of digitisation and machine learning to reduce energy and material usage.
“70 per cent of our total production should be green, probably it would be more but at the moment we are confident that 70 per cent will be achieved,” said Ranjan Dhar, Director and Vice President for Sales and Marketing, AM/NS India, in a press briefing with the media.
Currently, the company’s 65 per cent steel production is undertaken mostly through use of natural gas, which the company claims creates a low carbon footprint. The company currently has a production capacity of 9 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) and is expected to grow to 15 MTPA by Apr-Jun quarter of 2026.
In terms of policy incentives, another senior executive from the company outlined that the government’s intent to procure a substantial amount of ‘Green Steel’ from the industry will enable the necessary transition to such products.
“There will be a substantial procurement the government is going to do in the financial year 2026-27,” said Arvind Bodhankar, Chief Sustainability Officer, AM/NS India to the media.
Green Steel Taxonomy
The company’s push for a steel production through green technology and processes is being undertaken with an aim to align with India’s new Green Steel Taxonomy, which is expected to be rolled out in 2026-27.
India’s Green Steel Taxonomy has been defined based on the emissions intensity of the steel plant. According to it, to qualify as ‘Green Steel’, the Carbon Dioxide or CO2 equivalent (CO2e) emissions intensity must be less than 2.2 tonnes of CO2e per tonne of finished steel (tfs).
The company’s emissions in 2023-24 was at 2.23 tonnes of CO2e/tfs.
According to AM/NS India, it has achieved a CO2 intensity of 2.17 tCO2/tonne crude steel (tcs) in 2022-23, which is 14 per cent lower than the national average and aims to achieve 20 per cent reduction in carbon emissions intensity by 2030 to 1.8 tCO2/tcs from 2021 baseline.
As per India’s Green Steel Taxonomy, steel with an emissions intensity above 2.2 tonnes of CO2e/tfs will not be eligible for a ‘Green Steel’ rating, while steel produced below it will be rated on a three-tier system of 3-star (2.2-2.0/tfs), 4-star (1.6-2.0/tfs), or 5-star green steel (below 1.6/tfs).
National Institute of Secondary Steel Technology has been assigned the task of verifying the claims of ‘Green Steel’ production from producers and assigning the star ratings.
