Steel is the world’s most versatile material with numerous grades and application. It is 100% recyclable. Steel making technologies can adopt carbon reducing technologies.
India is the second largest steel producing country in the world. India produced 149 million tons of steel out of total 1.9 billion tons of steel production in the world in 2024. China, the largest steel producer, produced 1005 million tons which is more steel than all other countries combined. The steel production of the major countries in 2024 is as follows:
China 1005 Mt (1), India 149 Mt (2), Japan 84 Mt (3), US 80 Mt (4), Russia 71 Mt (5), South Korea 64 Mt (6), Germany 37 Mt (7) & Turkey 37 Mt (7), Brazil 34 Mt (8) and Iran 31 Mt (9) and rest of world 293 Mt [1]. China’s growth is incredible year over year. But India, in terms of steel making growth rates today, leads the top 10 largest steel producing countries by a wide margin. Carbon emission from steel making remains a major challenge today. India produces 2.54 tons of CO2 per ton of steel produced compared to the global average of 1.91 tons and 2.33 tons in China. India plans to achieve zero CO2 emission in its economy by 2070. Consequently India would achieve complete zero CO2 emission in its steel industry too by 2070. When the green transition of Indian steel industry is reviewed, the target of emission free steel making in India by 2070 is found challenging but realistic and the green transition of Indian steel industry highly promising. Carbon emissions from steel making depend on steel making route. The recent 2023 data is given below

Greening the steel sector is the global agenda. But the roadmap differs. US opted for R-EAF-scrap route. The EU opted H2-DRI-EAF route. China plans downsizing steel production to the tune of 50 Mt per annum with phasing out inefficient operation and optimising technology. India is open to all possible options instead of defining a specific technology pathway. Today the contributions of EAF route and BF-BOF route in India are nearly 30% and 70 % of steel making capacity respectively. The utilisation of the capacities of these routes are 74% and 84% respectively. New plants with 258 Mt capacity/annum are in pipeline in various stages of designing to commissioning. The share of EAF route of this capacity addition is only 13% or 33.54 Mt. One of the major trends in the industry is the shift towards ecofriendly steel production. The Indian government has set a
target of reducing the country’s carbon emissions by 33-35% by 2030, and the steel industry is playing a crucial role in achieving this goal. Many steel companies in India are adopting advanced technologies and processes to reduce their carbon footprint and increase the use of renewable energy in their operations. Ministry of Steel, Government of India began the green transformation by establishing a legal and regulatory framework by publishing a three tier rating of Green Steel
Taxonomy on March 21, 2025. It would come into force from the next fiscal i.e. FY 2026-27. NISST (National Institute of Secondary Steel Technology) and BEE (Bureau of Energy Efficiency) are certifying agency and Register of Green Steel respectively. The three tier ratings are as follows:
5* : Emission must be less than 1.60 T of CO2 per 1 T of finished steel
4* : Emission must be between 1.61 to 2.0 T of CO2 per 1 T of finished steel
3* : Emission must be between 2.01 to 2.20 T of CO2 per 1 T of finished steel
The validity of this classification would be three years and then the same would be reviewed and revised on regular basis. There are incentive/punitive measures like CBAM in the EU and other countries. But India is the first country to make any such ecological classification. Government sectors are major steel consumers and GPP (Green government Procurement Policy) would steel procurement sources based on this rating only [2]. Some of the recent Government initiatives in steel sector are as follows:
— Production-linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for Specialty Steel was introduced In July 2021. The scheme is expected to attract investment worth ~Rs. 400 billion (US$ 5.37 billion) and expand specialty steel capacity by 25 million tonnes (MT), to 42 MT in FY27, from 18 MT in FY21.
Mission Purvodaya was launched in 2020. to accelerate the development of the eastern states of India (Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, and the northern part of Andhra Pradesh) through the establishment of an integrated steel hub in Kolkata having the potential to add >75% of the country’s incremental steel capacity. It is expected that of the 300 MT capacity by 2030-31, >200 MT can come from this
region alone.
· Hydrogen Commercialisation in the Steel Sector started In June 2021. JSW Steel, CSIR-National Chemical Lab (NCL), Scottish Development International (SDI) and India H2 Alliance (IH2A) joined to commercialise hydrogen in the steel and cement sectors. Investment Allocation in Union Budget and Trade Policies and Import Duties:
— February 2024> Measures initiated to promote selfreliance in the steel industry.
— October 2021> India and Russia signed a MoU to carry out R&D in the steel sector and produce coking coal (used in steel making).
— June 2021> Budget 2023-24> An investment of Rs. 75,000 crore (US$ 9.15 billion) (including Rs. 15,000 crore (US$ 1.83 billion) from private sources) has been allocated for 100 critical transport infrastructure projects for last and first mile connectivity for various sectors such as ports, coal, and steel.
— January 2021> Japan, to boost the steel sector through joint activities under the framework of India–Japan Steel Dialogue.
— An industry driven Steel Research and Technology Mission of India (SRTMI), in association with the public and private sector steel companies to spearhead research and development activities in the iron and steel industry launched at an initial corpus of Rs. 200 crore (US$ 30
million).
— Import duty on most steel items raised and measures including anti-dumping and safeguard duties on iron and steel items imposed.
The Ministry of Steel signed 57 MoUs with 27 companies for specialty steel under the PLI scheme (Production Linked Incentive). Under the scheme the government has approved a sum of `6,322 crore for steel sector growth.
Apart from creating new jobs and contributing to making India the 3rd largest economy globally (by 2030-31), the scheme aims to create an additional capacity of 25 MT of specialty steel in the next five years.
— Initiatives like Green Steel and Hydrogen Mission would enable low carbon emissions
— R&D, new product development, and best practices should be adopted across the steel sector. If regulation and government policy is one step of the decarbonisation transition in India, the second step would be optimization of process and technology.
Energy efficiency:
Specific energy consumption of Indian steel mills per 1 ton of finished steel is 6.0-6.5 and 7.0 GKal for BF-BOF route DRIEAF/ IF route respectively against the world average of 4.5-5.0 GKal. The way forward is digitalisation of production processes with a shift of energy source from thermal energy to Renewable Energy(RE). RE use in steel and metal sector in India was 7.2 %. It is planned to be scaled up to 43.33% by FY
2030-31. This step would reduce CO2 emission from current level 2.54 T to 2.35 T per 1 T of steel produced.
India achieved 50% non fossil fuel power generation capacity 5 years ahead 2030 target. Installed cleaned energy capacity as in July, 2025 is 242.8 GW, more than 217% growth over 76.37 GW capacity as in March, 2014. But actual generation through RE sources is hardly 15% of the total generation.
Introduction of improving decarbonisation technologies:
The cost of this measure for existing steel plants of 200 Mt capacity, as per Ministry of Steel, would be USD 283 billion. The additional costs for new plants with a capacity of 300 Mt planned to be built by 2047 for the same would be only USD 13 billion.
Options for green steel in India Research has examined potential technologies to decarbonize this sector globally and several options have been proposed to green steel production in India. This includes increasing the share of secondary (scrap metal) steel production using EAF, and reducing the average emissions intensity for primary steel, as these are higher in comparison to international norms. Reducing emissions in BF/BOF processes include incremental improvements in energy and material efficiency and reducing slag volumes and increasing the use of low carbon injectants in the blast furnace to reduce the coke rate. The emissions can be further reduced by carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS). Emissions from steel production where scrap steel is
the main input and/or instances where iron ore and/or some scrap steel are the main inputs can be reduced by producing DRI from natural gas and ultimately switching to green hydrogen and using GHG free electricity in EAF and IF. Apart from having substantial emissions reductions potential in the case of using green hydrogen, another advantage of producing steel through direct reduction (H-DR) is that total energy
demand is similar to steel produced using conventional methods (namely through the BF-BOF route). The attractiveness of steel produced using green H-DR processes is dependent on costs (linked to the price of electricity and a carbon price) as well as allowing for flexibility in production methods.