US Steel issues environmental data on Big River products

Pittsburgh-based United States Steel Corp. has made environmental product declarations (EPDs) available for three types of products made at its scrap-fed electric arc furnace (EAF) Big River Steel complex in Arkansas.

The EPDs are for hot-rolled, cold-rolled and corrosion-resistant flat-rolled products that originated at the Big River melt shop. “The EPDs provide quantifiable, independent and audited environmental data on these core products,” U.S. Steel says.

Making the information available about the life cycle impacts and emissions of the Big River steel products can allow customers to select more sustainable products, the steel producer adds.

“We are thrilled to have secured EPDs on our three major flat-rolled steel coil products, representing all products melted at Big River Steel Works,” says Kenneth E. Jaycox, senior vice president with U.S. Steel.

“This development unlocks substantial value to our customers who want to be more informed about their supply chain’s environmental impact. Presenting transparent and data-backed validation of our products empowers our customers to make more informed and sustainable decisions.”

The EPDs were created after audit and certification processes undertaken by the Pennsylvania-based American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). The steelmaker says the EPDs “provide a more holistic story of the environmental impact of each product in a single, comprehensive report to better inform transparent, sustainable decision making.”

Within the EPDs, the description of the Big River complex says products there are made from secondary steel (i.e., steel scrap) via EAF, using up to 90 percent scrap per heat.

The EPDs say at the Osceola, Arkansas, facility, scrap metal is received via barge, truck and rail and is inspected and sorted into onsite scrap yard piles before scrap is moved from the scrap yard into the EAFs for melting and refining.

Big River-made hot-rolled steel coils have about 86 percent iron content, according to the firm, while also containing up to 3 percent manganese, 2.5 percent molybdenum and up to 2 percent each of aluminum, chromium and silicon.

The EPDs also note that in 2017, Big River Steel became what it calls “the first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)-certified steel production facility in the nation” and in 2022 the mill became “the first in North America to receive ResponsibleSteel site certification.”

The newly issued EPDs can be requested via the U.S. Steel website.