Steel’s Carbon Advantage
The American steel industry is the cleanest of the leading steel industries in the world. Of the major steel-producing countries, the U.S. has the lowest CO₂ emissions per ton of steel produced. By contrast, Chinese steel production creates carbon emissions that are nearly twice that of the U.S. per ton of steel produced. Korean steel production is more than one-and-a-half times as CO₂ intensive as steel produced in the U.S., on a per-ton basis. The global steel industry contributes 8 percent of total GHG emissions. The U.S. steel industry emits only 1-2 percent of total U.S. GHG emissions.