Metallurgical innovation alliance formed in Shanghai

The Global Low-carbon Metallurgical Innovation Alliance was officially established in Shanghai on Thursday, with the aim of boosting the global steel industry's low-carbon transformation.

The alliance, initiated by China Baowu Steel Group, is comprised of 62 enterprises, colleges and universities and scientific research institutions from 15 countries.

Backed by the collective research and development resources from global steel enterprises and research institutions, the alliance can carry out fundamental and forward-looking low-carbon metallurgical technology development, promote technological collaboration and exchanges and facilitate the low-carbon transformation of the steel industry, said Hou Angui, vice-general manager of China Baowu Steel Group.

It is extremely difficult to make the transformation through a single steel enterprise, but would become possible with the joint efforts of all parties within the steel industry, Hou said.

Calling the alliance "a wonderful initiative", Sanjay Sharma, ArcelorMittal's vice-president and CEO for China said: "It is an initiative, which is to bring all the global peers across the value chain, upstream, midstream and downstream, to look at which technology is most efficient, which are the new technologies to be supported more and how previous policies can be the catalyst to make this technology scale up and implement faster."

During the global low-carbon metallurgical innovation forum where the alliance was inaugurated, China Baowu announced it would establish a low-carbon metallurgical innovation fund, providing at least 35 million yuan annually to support the research and development of low-carbon metallurgy.

China Baowu also disclosed its road map for low-carbon metallurgical technology on Thursday. As the bellwether of China's steel industry, China Baowu vowed to have its carbon emissions peak by 2023 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.