STEEL INDUSTRY MEETING UP TO THE CHALLENGE OF CLIMATE CHANGE

摘要

Climate change has been a critical issue in all sectors, including iron and steel industry which contributes up to 3-4 percent of total world greenhouse gas emissions. However, we cannot ignore the fact that steel is essential and has become a necessary part of life. Global steel consumption has been growing rapidly every year, resulting in a substantial increase of steel production to serve the needs of the world. In the 1950s, annual global steel production was around 200 million tones. However, in 2006 the figure stood at 1,239.5 million tonnes, as reported by IISI. Obviously, we cannot stop consuming steel nor producing it. Thefuture growth in demand for steel is apparentand isdrivenmainlybyChina, India, Russia and other countries including ASEAN. IISI has estimated that every tonne of steel produced will create an average of 1.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Imagine how much greenhouse gas could the steel industry emit per year. In fact, over 90 percent of steel industry emissions come from iron production. The existing major nine countries or regions producing iron are Brazil, China, EU-27, India, Japan, Korea, Russia, Ukraine and the USA. There will be more iron-making capacity expansion from both green-field and brown-field projects. ASEAN region itself is expected to see several iron-making projects being implemented in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam over the next few years.