As European steelmakers look to decarbonize production, the price of natural gas and CO2 emissions could have a significant impact on the cost competitiveness of greener options. For example, when examining the cost competitiveness of three potential approaches, a path based on green hydrogen—a replacement for natural gas in certain production methods—used in combination with direct-reduced-iron and electric-arc-furnace processes is already cost competitive at a natural-gas price of €15 per gigajoule and a CO2 price of €100 per metric ton.
![Getting to greener steel](/~/media/mckinsey/featured%20insights/charting%20the%20path%20to%20the%20next%20normal/2022/aug/gifs/cod-greensteeleurope_ex4-v8-rj-shrunk-timed.gif)
To read the article, see “Safeguarding green steel in Europe: Facing the natural-gas challenge,” June 21, 2022.