Steel Industry's Energy And CO2 Benchmarking

The iron and steel industry accounts for around 7% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and 11% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Global steel production has more than doubled between 2000 and 2020. China accounted for 53% of global steel production in 2020.

International benchmarking of energy intensity and CO2 emissions intensity can provide a comparison point against which a company or industry’s performance can be measured to that of the same type of company or industry in other countries. Benchmarking can also be used for assessing the energy and emissions improvement potential that could be achieved by the implementation of energy efficiency or CO2 reduction measures. Also, on a national level, policy makers can use benchmarking to prioritize energy saving and decarbonization options and to design policies to reduce energy and GHG emissions.

Global Efficiency Intelligence is conducting a benchmarking study for energy and CO2 emissions intensity of the steel industry among the largest steel-producing countries. In addition to calculating energy and CO2 intensities for the entire steel industry, we also calculated separately the intensities associated with the EAF and blast furnace–basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF) production routes in each country, separately.