Mining giant BHP is expanding its global steel decarbonisation program, partnering with major international steelmakers to advance industrial-scale trials across multiple technology pathways.
Despite macroeconomic headwinds, including high capital costs, tight access to competitively priced green hydrogen, and a slowdown in commercial project funding, global investment in steel decarbonisation reached US$24 billion (AU$34.22 billion) in the 12 months to April 2026.
With steel production accounting for significant global emissions, BHP is executing trials across modified blast furnace retrofits, direct reduced iron with electric smelting furnaces (DRI–ESF), and electrochemical reduction pathways to accommodate diverse regional energy profiles and raw material qualities.
In blast furnace technology, BHP supported China’s Zenith Steel in testing hydrogen injection retrofits to reduce coal consumption.
Collaborative carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS) pilot campaigns with ArcelorMittal and HBIS demonstrated over 90 per cent capture efficiency on blast furnace gases, pointing to potential emissions reductions of up to 30 per cent when deployed at scale.
Additionally, an initial CCUS hub study completed in April 2026 evaluated five potential regional storage hubs across Australia, India, Indonesia, and Malaysia.
For lower-emissions process routes, BHP completed commercial-scale pellet trials with Zenith Steel using 55 per cent Pilbara iron ore.
BHP is also progressing the design of the NeoSmelt shaft DRI–ESF demonstration plant in Kwinana, Western Australia, alongside joint venture partners BlueScope, Rio Tinto, Woodside, AMB Holdings, and Mitsui.
In South Korea, BHP expanded its collaboration with POSCO to trial Pilbara fine ores at POSCO’s HyREX hydrogen-based ironmaking facility in Pohang, scheduled for 2028.
To support emerging zero-emission technologies, BHP continued working with portfolio companies Boston Metal and Electra on electrochemical reduction, with Electra logging a 1,400-hour continuous pilot run using Pilbara iron ore fines.
Through partnerships representing a quarter of global steel output, BHP aims to provide steelmakers with scalable, flexible pathways tailored to regional infrastructure and policy environments.
