Insights, technical note, 4 min read, 2026-10-17
Steel route intensity and what it means for an iron metallics project
Per tonne of crude steel, the blast furnace route emits more than three times the CO₂ of scrap-based electric arc furnaces. Direct reduced iron sits between them.
- Title
- Steel route intensity and what it means for an iron metallics project
- Doc no.
- TN-605
- Rev
- P1
- Discipline
- CB EA
- Date
- 2026-10-17
- Status
- Published
If you make or buy steel, the production route sets most of its carbon. Plant-specific data is worth having before EU buyers start passing on costs.
Scrap-based EAF steel carries under a third of the blast-furnace route's CO₂ per tonne.
t CO₂ per t crude steel cast, 2024 data.
Data table
| Route | t CO₂/t |
|---|---|
| 2.34 | |
| 1.47 | |
| Scrap-EAF | 0.69 |
| World average | 1.92 |
worldsteel's 2025 indicators put the 2024 global average at 1.92 t CO₂ per tonne of crude steel cast: 2.34 for the blast furnace and basic oxygen furnace route, 1.47 for DRI with an electric arc furnace, and 0.69 for scrap-based EAF. On a broader greenhouse-gas basis that adds methane, nitrous oxide and upstream mining, the figures are 2.66, 1.66 and 0.71, with a global average of 2.18. worldsteel puts the industry at 7 to 8 percent of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions.1
For the project assessment
The DRI figure is not split by reductant, so a gas-based plant designed for later hydrogen blending should not borrow it as its own . Build the project's intensity bottom-up from the design energy and material balance, state the boundary (with or without pelletising and mining), and use the route averages only as context.
For exporters, the same calculation now has a commercial use. Iron and steel are CBAM goods, and an installation-level figure built from real data is often lower than the marked-up EU default value, though not always, so calculate it before deciding which to declare.
Capture is still small
Operating capture capacity is about an eighth of what is operating or in development.
Mt CO₂ per year, July 2025.
For context on capture as a decarbonisation route, the Global CCS Institute counted 64 Mt a year of capture capacity in operation at 77 facilities in July 2025, against 513 Mt a year operating and in development.2
Notes and references
- World Steel Association (2025). Sustainability Indicators 2025 (2024 data), pp. 5–6 and 10. https://worldsteel.org/wp-content/uploads/Sustainability-Indicators-2025.pdf Back to text
- Global CCS Institute (2025). Global Status of CCS 2025, executive summary and press release, 9 October 2025. https://www.globalccsinstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/GSR-2025-Executive-Summary-21-October.pdf Back to text
Send your production route and last year's energy and material balance. We reply with what a credible intensity figure needs.