British Steel consults people on Teesside over 'green' electric arc furnace plans
British Steel has held a consultation event in Redcar to explain to people how its £1.25 billion plans to build two electric arc furnaces in Scunthorpe and Redcar will help the company become cleaner, greener and more sustainable.
The plans involve replacing the traditional blast furnaces, which relied on coal as a source of fuel, with the electric arc furnaces, which use renewably generated electricity to melt the raw steel.
Chris McDonald, of Materials Processing Institute (MPI), who have a similar electric arc furnace for research and developing innovative technologies, told ITV News the announcement is welcome, but he has some concerns over energy costs and primary steel making.
He said: "The thing that we’re missing is primary steelmaking, steel made from iron ore and that’s a gap in proposals, that’s something I’d like to see, so I think that the announcement that’s been made is a really good announcement. It’s what’s necessary for steelmaking, but it’s not sufficient. We need to take that extra step.
"This project here for British Steel on Teesside can still go ahead, but what I worry about is when we want to grow steel making in the future, or we’re thinking about national security, or some very sophisticated high grades of steel, without primary steelmaking, we might have a problem. We can’t have security of supply for steel, unless we have primary steel making."
The electric arc furnace proposed for Teesside will be 20 times larger than MPI's furnace and could be a game-changer when it comes to going green.
With the steel making industry accounting for nearly 10 percent of the UK's carbon emissions, technology experts claim Teesside is in a prime position to lead the way in making steel production more environmentally friendly.
Alan Scholes, the chief technology officer at MPI, told ITV News: "With offshore wind, with nuclear at Hartlepool, we are one of the regions that has the greenest electricity in the UK, so combining that with making steel, I think is a good news story environmentally for the region."
Job Concerns
Unions have raised concerns that the plans by British Steel could result in around 2,000 steelworkers at the Scunthorpe plant losing their jobs.
Charlotte Brumpton-Childs, of the GMB union, said: "GMB welcomes the decarbonisation of the steel industry, but the small amount of jobs this will create on Teeside must not be at the cost of jobs in Scunthorpe.
"Our experts, Syndex, are currently working through the British Steel proposal and we await their recommendations.
"There must be no options left off the table and while public consultation may be starting this week, the formal consultation with the workforce has not.
"In the meantime, we maintain our position that decarbonisation should not result in compulsory job losses and we should ensure that we have the ability to continue to make all grades of steel."
A Department for Business and Trade spokesperson said: "Our commitment to the UK steel sector is clear from our unprecedented package of support for the steelworks in Port Talbot, and we continue to work closely with industry, including British Steel, to secure a sustainable and competitive future for the sector and its workers.
"We have offered a generous support package including more than £300 million of investment for British Steel to cut emissions, help safeguard jobs and unlock over £1 billion in stakeholder investment."
A British Steel spokesman said decarbonisation was a "major challenge" but it was committed to making "low-embedded carbon steel" needed in the UK.
They said: “We studied having one large electric arc furnace based in Scunthorpe, one which was capable of manufacturing all of the steel we require for our rolling mills in the Humber and the North East.
"However, such a large furnace would require a new National Grid connection and it is anticipated this would not be available until 2034. We therefore believe the most viable and timely option is to have two smaller furnaces which combine to produce the volumes of steel we require.
“It is prudent to evaluate different operational scenarios to help us achieve our goals and we are continuing to assess our options.
"However, we firmly believe electrification will provide a rapid and sustainable solution to our decarbonisation challenge in addition to providing support for sustainable employment."