At May’s AISTech event, representatives from the four largest steelmakers in North America, and one of their largest customers, gathered for the show’s annual town hall. They were asked to describe the steel industry in just one word, a question that produced an interesting array of answers.
Excitement - Daniel Brown, Big River Steel The steel industry moves at the speed of light. What the steel industry is going through right now, from a sustainability standpoint, from a capital standpoint, from an operational standpoint, it’s incredible to be a part of. It’s no longer one of our employees shoving coal in a blast furnace. It’s high tech. We can really do things to take down our footprint from a sustainability standpoint, a GHG standpoint, and make steel the choice product in everything we do.
Gorillas - Wendell: Carter, Cleveland-Cliffs We have a decarbonization gorilla that has landed in North America and Europe. You don’t see that transformation going on elsewhere. We have another gorilla that is in our theater and is having an impact in North America. That’s China and Asia. China is going to import 100 million tons, due to their overcapacity, to someplace around the globe. It’s going to be the highest carbon intensity. We have four very large steel companies for the first time in the U.S. in a long time. We need to combine to make the North American and European theaters to be the gorillas that lead the green wave.
Focused - Dave Sumoski, Nucor For many years now, the industry has been focused on safety. Some of the other things we’re becoming way more focused on is sustainability, innovation and new technology. Our suppliers are helping us move forward when it comes to safety, with technologies to keep our teammates away from hazards. They’re also working with us to come up with cleaner solutions to produce steel.
Bellwether - Chris Graham, Steel Dynamics A lot of us have felt for many years that steel is swept in the corner and we don’t have to acknowledge its existence and its role. Given steel’s role in our society, we’re going to take center stage. We can’t have fantastical thoughts that will turn on a dime tomorrow. We need to be the adults in the room and lead a meaningful transition. We’ll be the bellwether for how fast and how far we can take it. We have to make sure there is real change around the world and not just virtue signaling by use of financial instruments that don’t make a hill of beans difference in emissions.
Transformative - Prasanna Joshi, ExxonMobilTo keep the economy going, to sustain the standard of living, we have to continue to produce these products, steel and oil and gas and reduce emissions at the same time. It’s an “and equation.” It’s a huge challenge, how do you do both, produce the products as well as reduce the emissions at the same time? The key going forward is innovation, transformation and collaboration. ?
[Sidebar:]A Rapid Response To Tragic Event
The most poignant and heartfelt moment of the town hall was Nucor’s Dan Sumoski’s comments on the subject of safety. Statistically, the steel company was coming off its safest year ever, with an injury and illness rate down to 0.71 percent.
But to the folks at Nucor, it was by no means a successful year, Sumoski admitted. In November, Don Mesman, Jr. was killed in an accident at Nucor’s DRI plant in Louisiana.
“That set us back. With a fatality, we’re not talking about the safest year.”
Nucor’s response to the incident was immediate and meaningful. The company launched a safety standdown, when every facility in the country was to cease all production activities for a minimum of four hours and turn their focus to safety measures.
The standdown was designed to foster real conversations with team members about the obstacles to the complete, incident-free workforce the employees, and the company, want. Six initiatives resulted from those conversations.
And, to reinforce the idea that this was not a one-time blip before normalcy returned, the company initiated a second standdown a few weeks later to refresh and remind their employees about the importance of a safe working environment.