Canadian steelmakers embrace 'green steel' as carbon taxes set to rise
CTV
The steel industry is at a crossroads, with government policies like carbon pricing designed to combat climate change hitting manufacturers' bottom lines and international pledges likely to seek further concessions from companies that burn fossil fuels.
And the chief executive of Algoma Steel is hoping the company's costly investment to make "green steel" will help to insulate it from the kinds of sector-wide downturns that previously threw it into bankruptcies.
"I would never say never, but we are certainly doing everything in our power to certainly minimize, if not eliminate that risk," says chief executive Michael McQuade, who has plans to reduce the company's carbon emissions by about 70 per cent..
Canada's steel industry is currently in a position of strength as the economy recovers from a COVID-19 pandemic that diminished demand and having emerged in 2019 from a period of punishing tariffs imposed by the Trump administration.
The $15 billion industry produces about 13 million tonnes of primary steel, steel pipe and tube products in more than 30 facilities in five provinces.
