Working Paper
Tracing the steel supply chain of the shipbuilding industry
As the steel sector strives to decarbonize to meet international climate goals, tracing demand through the shipbuilding supply chain reveals opportunities to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from both sectors through enhanced collaboration. This paper investigates the GHG emissions associated with steelmaking for shipbuilding.
Our findings indicate that the shipbuilding industry consumed 33.2 million tonnes of steel in 2021 and 2022, with China, South Korea, and Japan accounting for 88.3% of this total. The embodied GHG emissions from steelmaking for shipbuilding were estimated to be 72.2 million tonnes globally, with the majority coming from these same three countries.
Figure. Total estimated GHG emissions embedded in steel for shipbuilding in 2021 and 2022
The analysis informed several policy and strategy recommendations to reduce these emissions, including improving energy efficiency, increasing the use of scrap-based electric arc furnace steel production, adopting hydrogen direct-reduced iron processes, and enhancing cross-industry collaboration.