Japanese steel company Kobe Steel has announced that it has reduced carbon dioxide emissions from its production processes by 23 percent in fiscal year 2025 compared to fiscal year 2013, according to ESG. 2026.
The company plans to reduce emissions by 30 percent by fiscal year 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050. In fiscal year 2025, energy-related emissions from the Scope 1 and Scope 2 projects amounted to 14.9 million tons of carbon dioxide, including 14.1 million tons of emissions from the first category and 0.8 million tons of emissions from the second category. The total volume decreased from 15.4 million tons in fiscal year 2024 to 15.5 million tons in fiscal year 2023. Steel smelting accounts for more than 90% of the group's emissions.
Total energy consumption decreased to 178 PJ from 183 PJ in the previous fiscal year, while the energy intensity of production as a whole remained unchanged at 28.6 GJ/t. Production CO2 The intensity of production also remained stable and amounted to approximately 2.4 million tons of carbon dioxide per ton of manufactured products. Meanwhile, the emissions reported by Kobe Steel under the Scope 3 program decreased to 24.1 million tons of CO2 equivalent from 26.0 million tons in fiscal year 2024, while the purchased goods and services accounted for approximately 5.0 million tons.
Hydrogen and HBI technologies remain key to decarbonization стали
Steel smelting remains the main focus of Kobe's efforts to decarbonize steel. The Group, together with other Japanese steelmakers, is participating in a project supported by the Japanese NEDO Green Innovation Foundation aimed at developing hydrogen-based blast furnace steel recovery technology, the use of direct reduction iron in electric arc furnaces, and technology for removing impurities from steel scrap..
Kobe Steel stated that this demonstrated an approximately 25 percent reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from blast furnaces by loading large quantities of hot briquetted cast iron produced using MIDREX technology. The way to achieve the goals set for fiscal year 2030 includes combining the use of HBI with biomass, while in the long term, furnaces for melting scrap and EDP production facilities are also being considered. The development of MIDREX p, which is designed for the production of direct reduction iron using 100% hydrogen, is also ongoing. In fiscal year 2025, Kobe Steel invested about 1.2 billion. About 8.5 billion yen ($53.92 million) was spent on climate and energy efficiency projects and about 8.5 billion yen ($53.92 million) was spent on climate-related research and development.
The group estimated that its products and technologies contributed to the prevention of 67.42 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions in fiscal 2025, up from 62.35 million tons in the previous year. The MIDREX process accounts for most of the prevented emissions. Kobe Steel aims to increase this contribution to 78 million tons by fiscal year 2030 and to more than 100 million tons by 2050.
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