A new report, Testing the Mettle: Ranking steel companies’ current renewable energy use, ranks major steel companies for the first time on their direct renewable energy use. Covered by Reuters, the report finds that two South Korean companies, Hyundai Steel and Dongkuk Steel, rank joint-last globally on renewable energy procurement.
South Korea’s Hyundai Steel ranked joint-last with fellow South Korean producer Dongkuk Steel, declaring zero renewable use in 2022, with no evidence of operational renewable projects or current Power Purchase Agreements. The Swedish company SSAB led the field, with 19 percent renewable energy as a percentage of total energy use.
- The top three steel majors direct renewable energy use as a percentage of total energy consumption in 2022.
| SSAB (Swedish) | 19% |
| Cleveland Cliffs (US) | 2.9% |
| United States Steel Corporation (US) | 2.3% |
- The bottom three steel majors direct renewable energy use as a percentage of total energy consumption in 2022.
| Hyundai Steel (South Korea) | 0. No current RE project details. |
| Dongkuk Steel (South Korea) | 0. No current RE project details. |
| JFE Group (Japan) | 0. JFE Shoji Coil Centre Corp. PPA with Urban Energy Corp for an undisclosed amount of RE supply to the JCC Shizuoka Works. |
“From an international perspective, it is very surprising to see major companies that claim to have a carbon neutrality strategy purchasing literally zero renewable energy. Most leading global companies would at least attempt to purchase a small amount, for the sake of their brand’s credibility,” says Laura Kelly, Strategy Director at Action Speaks Louder (ASL), the global climate not-for-profit that conducted the ranking.
“For steel companies to be one investment cycle away from 2050 and making such limited investment in critical RE supply, shows how far they are lagging on net-zero delivery. Any steel company claiming to offer eco steel products that have been made with zero renewable energy risk exposure to greenwash claims,” Ms Kelly says.
Kinam Kim, Senior Campaigner for ASL in South Korea, says Hyundai Steel must address its increasing reliance on fossil fuels, or risk the ESG ratings of its major customers, including Hyundai Motor.
“Hyundai Steel’s poor performance globally exposes its major customer, Hyundai Motor, to brand risks. Unless Hyundai Motor adopts a strong green steel target, it will struggle to compete with European and American brands and create more jobs in the US instead of South Korea, where Hyundai Motor is building new factories to benefit from more abundant renewable energy and generous Government sustainability subsidies,” Mr. Kim says.
The ranking was reviewed by SteelWatch, a climate organization focused on driving transformation of the steel sector to align with 1.5’C of climate change.
“While Steel companies are increasingly telling us they’re working hard to clean up production, this report again underlines that they simply aren’t taking the most basic, immediate actions to reduce emissions. Steelmakers tend to be huge energy consumers, and powerful political players, so they need to publicly shift their weight behind renewables. This will be ever-more important in the next decade as steelmakers exit coal use and will depend on renewable-powered clean production of iron and steel,” says Caroline Ashley, Executive Director of SteelWatch.
View the report here. For information contact: kinam@speakslouder.org; laura@speakslouder.org.