News Room - Steel Industry

Posted on 14 May 2024

Vietnam targets higher steel output, lower emissions

Vietnam could produce 51 million tonnes of crude steel in 2050, Vietnam Steel Association (VSA) secretary general and vice chairman Dinh Quoc Thai said at Monday’s South East Asian Iron and Steel Institute (Seaisi) annual conference in Da Nang.

However, in order to meet the nation’s ambitions of becoming carbon neutral, emissions from the steel sector must fall dramatically by then, to 10 million tonnes/year, Kallanish notes.

This would mean that, while crude steel production increases around 165% from 2019-2050, emissions would need to drop around 75% from 40mt in 2019. Emissions per tonne of steel would have to fall by more than 90%. The business-as-usual projection for steel industry emissions in 2050, assuming no change in technologies or policies, is over 100t of CO2e emissions in 2050.

According to Vietnam’s plans, total industrial greenhouse gas emissions should not exceed 86m t/y and national emissions should peak in 2035. In the short term, the industry can only apply technology optimisation.

By 2035, increasing use of renewable electricity and direct reduced iron could help to bring down emissions, including some utilisation of natural gas and some pure hydrogen DRI. Blast furnaces will also begin to use hydrogen injection. By 2050, DRI should be reduced using pure hydrogen.

Source:Kallanish