British Steel takes another step toward EAFs

United Kingdom-based British Steel has submitted a planning application to the North Lincolnshire Council for its proposed electric arc furnace (EAF) mill in Scunthorpe, which is in the East Midlands of England.

The Scunthorpe application follows an earlier one submitted to the Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council in northern England in December 2023 to build an EAF at the company’s steel beam mill in that jurisdiction.

“The applications are central to our plans to transform British Steel into a clean, green and sustainable business by adopting EAF steelmaking at both sites,” the firm says. Steel made via the EAF process can be produced with much higher percentages of ferrous scrap compared with British Steel’s current blast furnace/basic oxygen furnace (BOF) processes.

British Steel, owned by the China-based Jingye Group, announced last November that it would approach stakeholders including government officials and trade unions tied to its English sites regarding technology conversion away from blast furnace/BOF processes to EAF steelmaking.

“EAF technology is the only solution to significantly reducing our carbon emissions in a relatively short period of time,” British Steel says.

“It is prudent to evaluate different operational scenarios to help us achieve our goals, and we are continuing to assess our options. However, we firmly believe electrification will provide a rapid and sustainable solution to our decarbonization challenge.”

The proposals at both sites in England remain subject to the appropriate support from the U.K. government, with which British Steel remains in talks.