May 2024 | Two steelmaker groups, GMH (Georgsmarienhütte) Gruppe and Swiss Steel, have issued notes of approval for the proposal from German steel federation for a standard for low-emission steel (LESS).
Both mills happen to be makers of special bar qualities, and the word of Swiss Steel may have some international weight, given it has melt shops in Germany, Switzerland and France.
WV Stahl announced on Monday that it has set a cornerstone for prime markets for climate-friendly streel with a standard its members developed together with the German economy and climate protection ministry.
The Low Emission Steel Standard (LESS), as it is called, is the first standard that makes the main customary production routes, blast furnace and EAF, comparable in terms of their efforts to decarbonise. Its centrepiece is a labelling system for the classification of low-CO2 steels.
Companies certified by LESS will have to reveal their product carbon footprint (PCF) according to the environmental product declaration (EPD). The LESS book of rules provides a basis from which steel users can obtain all information they need to be able to document their climate targets, the federation explains.
“The quest for a definition of green steel has long been discussed internationally,” says Bernhard Osburg, president of WV Stahl and chief executive of thyssenkrupp Steel. “I am happy that we joined our efforts to work out a solution that is based on international rules and which finds a broad consensus.”
GMH Gruppe managing partner Anne-Marie Grossmann has already pointed to a next step, the establishment of the standard in public investment. Once public institutions take LESS as a mandatory basis for their materials procurement, the acceptance of LESS will gain momentum, Grossmann says.
