Environment and Energy

Cliffs, SSAB Lauded by White House for Clean Manufacturing

October 23, 2022

The Biden administration is pushing its Federal Buy Clean Initiative to reduce carbon emissions from American industry and to support the purchase of low-carbon, made-in-America construction materials.

The administration last week lauded two domestic steelmakers for their commitments to lower emissions and for participating in the initiative.

The White House

Cleveland-Cliffs is the first domestic steel producer to participate in the Department of Energy’s Better Climate Challenge. It is also a participant in the DOE’s Better Plants program aimed at reducing waste and carbon emissions as well as at decreasing energy and water usage, the White House said.

The Better Climate Challenge was officially launched in February. It allows companies to partner with the Energy Department for technical assistance and for sharing best practices. The aim: reducing companies’ scope 1 and 2 emissions by a minimum of 50% within 10 years.

Cliffs’ Climate Challenge commitment involves 46 of its facilities. The goal is to reduce the company’s greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 20230.

Cliffs Chairman, President, and CEO Lourenco Goncalves met with US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm earlier this month. The two discussed the company’s DOE partnerships as well as the role it is playing in decarbonizing the steel industry and the American economy in general.

The Administration has also received a private sector commitment from SSAB Americas to innovate and to scale up its production of low-carbon steel. The steel plate producer has committed to producing steel with zero emissions as early as 2023.

“Through the installation of an onsite, renewable fuel storage and supply system, SSAB is embracing emerging technologies that help put the steel industry on the path to be carbon-neutral by 2050,” the White House noted last week in a statement.

Last month, SSAB Americas president Chuck Schmitt and senior vice president of commercial sales Jeff Moskaluk sat down with Steel Market Update to discuss the company’s ongoing sustainability efforts.

By Laura Miller, Laura@SteelMarketUpdate.com

Laura Miller

Laura Miller is a reporter and editor for Steel Market Update. She has held a variety of positions within the steel industry since 2007, including reporting and editing for Steel Business Briefing/Platts, the Association for Iron and Steel Technology, and Kallanish Commodities, as well as marketing for what was then known as ThyssenKrupp Steel USA (now AM/NS Calvert). After a five-year hiatus working across other industries, she returned to steel in 2021 and has covered the flat rolled, tubular, and trade areas of the industry. She is a member of the Association of Women in the Metal Industries and a past-president of the AWMI Pittsburgh Chapter. She holds a BA in Latin American Studies from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. She can be reached at laura@steelmarketupdate.com or 724-759-7869.