Nippon Steel

Nippon Steel fails first test
Despite its recent global expansion fundamentally reshaping the company, Nippon Steel is not matching its enlarged production footprint with responsible decarbonisation plans. 

Its acquisition of U. S. Steel has added around a third to its total emissions, and while the company has been promoting its electric arc furnace expansion, the reality is its production remains predominately coal-based, and its decarbonisation roadmap doesn’t see substantial emissions reductions happening until the 2040s.

This means its decarbonisation technologies are not being deployed in the coming critical decade for international climate action, and that’s before considering the technologies it is pursuing are promoting continued coal-based production.

Nippon Steel has decided to reline the Blast Furnace 14 at Gary Works, Indiana, and it has plans to keep its coal-based blast furnaces in Japan online through experimental and expensive technologies like carbon capture and storage (CCS). Additionally, its promotion of opaque “GX Steel” products – which use creative carbon accounting methods to sell steel produced with coal as decarbonised steel – all point to a company that is not taking its growing climate responsibility seriously.

The proper pathway forward is clear: a plan to phase out coal-based assets at end of life, combined with an early and large-scale shift to near-zero-emissions ironmaking, is essential.

Read our new corporate climate assessment of the company.