Is the UAE getting “greener” steel? ADX-listed Emirates Steel Arkan plans to partner with two Japanese companies to conduct feasibility studies for an iron ore processing facility in Abu Dhabi, according to a statement carried by state news agency WAM. Emirates Steel Arkan, Japanese trading and investment company Itochu Corporation and Japanese steel manufacturing firm JFE Steel Corporation’s plant is expected to begin production in 2H 2025, the statement says. No information has been disclosed on the scale of investment in the project.

SOUND SMART- What makes this project “green”? Presumably because it’s using less coal: The plan is to import high-grade iron ore — which is purer and lower in emissions than other kinds of iron ore, and seen as an essential part of lower-emissions steelmaking. The iron ore reduction process — where metallic iron is produced — would initially be done using natural gas, in what the statement terms “an enhanced decarbonized process.” “The project also makes provisions for the adoption of renewable energy power sources, as well as green hydrogen for the reduction process,” the statement adds.

Steel is one of the world’s dirtiest industries: The iron and steel sector is the largest industrial producer of CO2, other than industries involved in power generation, and accounts for some 7-9% of all direct fossil fuel emissions.

And Emirates Steel Arkan is a major producer: Emirates Steel Arkan is the UAE's largest steel and building materials manufacturer and has a total steel production capacity of 3.5 mn tons a year.