Posted on 26 Mar 2025
Chinese steel manufacturing conglomerate Hebei Iron and Steel Group (HBIS) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Australian miner Rio Tinto on March 24 to explore new pathways to reduce carbon emissions during steelmaking as part of the efforts to tackle climate change, according to a post on HBIS's official WeChat account on Monday.
The MoU focuses on exploring solutions to decarbonize the blast-furnace steel production by optimizing the mixture of furnace feeds and improving the energy efficiency. Meanwhile, the two companies are also committed to building cooperation in hydrogen-based metallurgy to promote sustainable development of the steel industry.
HBIS's president Liu Jian said at the signing ceremony that the company endeavors to cooperate with influential players in the hope of advancing decarbonization in the whole steel value chain.
Indeed, HBIS has already signed MoUs on decarbonization and climate change collaboration with many heavyweight iron ore suppliers globally. Just a few days earlier on March 20, HBIS signed an MoU with Brazilian mining giant Vale, aiming to explore further decarbonization technologies, such as hydrogen-based metallurgy and CCUS (Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage), Mysteel Global learns from HBIS's latest news release.
The two companies will also explore the possibility of using Tecnored furnaces, a technology that eliminates the need for coke furnaces and sintering to produce a 'green' pig iron, to treat solid waste and extract valuable metals, Mysteel Global understands.
In December last year, HBIS also signed a MoU with BHP, the world's largest mining company, to deepen their strategic collaboration on decarbonising the steel value chain and promoting the low-carbon transformation of the industry.
Source:Mysteel Global
