The International Iron and Steel Industry Institute, a research organization funded by the steel industry itself, says China now produces the world’s highest levels of steel-related greenhouse gases. From Bloomberg:
China now produces about 51 percent of all carbon emissions from steelmakers worldwide, according to a statement released today in Berlin by the institute during its annual meeting. The industry group is funded by the world’s biggest steel producers.
…China emits more greenhouse gases than other nations because it uses less scrap to make steel, so it burns more coal in the process, IISI said. About 2 tons of carbon dioxide are emitted for every ton of steel produced in a blast furnace. [Full Text]
Bloomberg quotes Baosteel and Shagang Jiangsu as saying China’s steel output could reach 500 million tons this year (equal to roughly 40 percent of world production in 2006).
The observation that China uses less scrap to make steel flies in the face of reports over the past few years of a whirlwind of miscellaneous metal flying into China’s furnaces. See, for example: “Asian Scavengers Feed China’s Hunger for Steel” (the New York Times via the Energy Bulletin).
[Image: Workers clock out at the Shougang Steel Factory outside Beijing, by Bowen Liu via Flickr]