Tata Steel gets its first client for 'green' metal

Tata Steel has inked an agreement with American carmaker Ford to supply "zeremis green steel" from its Netherlands-based IJmuiden plant after the unit shifts to hydrogen-based steel making. In Europe, Tata Steel is working to switch to low-carbon technologies to manufacture steel in the UK and the Netherlands.

The company's both businesses Tata Steel UK and Tata Steel Nederland have been developing detailed plans for transition to low CO2 tech in line with the company's goal to produce CO2-neutral steel by 2050 in Europe, company's CEO & MD T V Narendran and Executive Director and CFO Koushik Chatterjee earlier said.

"Tata Steel Nederland has signed an MoU with Ford in Europe to supply the carmaker with Zeremis green steel once the IJmuiden steelworks switches to green hydrogen-based steelmaking," a statement said.

The agreement makes Ford the first customer committed to offtake the green steel that Tata Steel plans to produce via the hydrogen route, which is more sustainable and cleaner than the current steel-making method.

Zeremis carbon lite steel is described as 100% carbon neutral.

"With the use of carbon-neutral steel, we will take a major step towards lowering the CO2 footprint of our vehicles," said Sue Slaughter, Ford Purchasing Director, Supply Chain and Sustainability.

Hans van den Berg, Chairman of the Board of Management of Tata Steel Nederland said, "We are transitioning to become a producer of large quantities of high-quality green steel. By aligning our sustainability ambitions with customers like Ford, we can create an early market for green steel."