INTERVIEW: Greta Group to grow scrap business in UK, while building steel mill in India

Greta Group will continue developing its UK-based steel recycling business, seeing scrap, along with direct-reduced iron, behind the biggest steel production routes of the future, while in India, it is setting up an iron ore-based steelworks that will have low-carbon emissions despite using thermal coal for power generation.

Greta's Global Recycling is among the top three steel scrap recyclers in the UK. With 14 sites and three shredders, it has a 1 million metric ton/year output, mostly exported through a captive deep-sea facility in Newport to Turkey, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and all over Southeast Asia, according to Nitesh Chaudhari, the chairman of Greta Group, a wholesaler of steel and steelmaking raw materials.

"We were the company that changed the UK scrap industry when we started containerizing scrap. Before, it was shipped by breakbulk; we started shipping in containers, which was really helpful for smaller recyclers, as they got access to the international market, which was previously restricted to larger companies," Chaudhari told Platts in an interview.

Energy cost biggest challenge

There are no duties or tariffs limiting the UK's scrap exports, but the outflow is likely to decline due to at least two electric arc furnace projects, including that of Tata Steel, coming up in the UK.

"Once those EAFs are up and running, we will be supplying mainly to the domestic steel industry then," said Chaudhari.

Despite managing ample scrap supply in the UK, the company plans to produce steel in India, and from iron ore concentrate converted into pellets, then into DRI.

"With 10 million mt of scrap collected annually, the UK has significant potential for recycled steel production, but with local electricity prices among the highest, its cost would be the biggest challenge as electricity is a major cost item in EAF-made steel," said Chaudhari.

"To melt scrap, you need 710-720 kilowatts per ton, and the electricity cost is almost 25 pence per kilowatt-hour," Chaudhari said, explaining why he would not build that EAF mill in the UK.

Instead, it will be established in Maharashtra, India, in proximity to a 20 million mt/year iron ore mining operation, enabling the mill to integrate a 600,000 mt/year DRI plant supplying feedstock for the 550,000 mt/year melt shop and 400,000 mt/year downstream production comprised of rebar and wire rod.

Relying on iron ore shall spare the project from potential scrap scarcity. "Scrap will be scarcer in general, as many steelmakers are building or planning to build EAFs," said Chaudhari.

Suppliers within 200 km radius

"The biggest advantage of our location is that we have coal mines 40 km away, and iron ore supplier within 150 km. We'll cover all our raw material requirements within a 200-km radius," he said.

The pellet plant will be operational by December 2027, followed by the EAF and rolling mill from mid-2028, and the DRI and Syngas units coming on stream by early 2029.

Greta Group has ordered equipment for the 1.2 million mt/year pellet plant from SMS Group. Thyssenkrupp Uhde is the chosen technology for the coal gasifier, and for the DRI furnace, it is in talks with a couple of plant makers.

The gasworks will produce synthetic gas, or syngas, by gasifying thermal coal supplied by a state-owned mine under a 15-year supply contract.

Forgoing natural gas

The company chose to forgo natural gas and will be using syngas as an energy input in the DRI furnace. "Natural gas prices fluctuate quite a bit, and today are particularly high. Syngas is much cheaper. My cost to produce it is $0.07 per cubic meter, whereas natural gas is almost three times as high," said Chaudhari.

Because of the gasworks and direct reduction process, the site will generate 1,670 mt/day of CO2, but plans to capture and utilize the bulk of those emissions.

"We will monetize CO2 as well: of the total emissions, we will liquefy 1,470 tons and sell it to fertilizer companies," said Chaudhari.

Steelmakers are generally opposed to carbon capture and utilization. "It is the scale of steelworks that matters. Utilizing CO2 is not easy, but a medium-sized company like ours can do it," he said, adding that building the CO2 capture and liquefaction facility will cost $110 million, making a significant part of the $700 million project investment, supported by a $45 million grant from the government.

Also, the EAF will run on renewable energy: the company plans to purchase 175 megawatts from solar and wind farms. As a result, it envisages its Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions intensity at 0.3 mt of CO2 per ton of steel, versus India's average of 2.2-2.7 mt and compared with the EU's benchmark for EAF steel of 0.467 mt.

The Indian government is aggressively promoting decarbonization. It is already assigning ratings to steel companies based on their emissions, and from 2027, up to 20% of steel in state-contracted infrastructure projects must be low-carbon, according to Chaudhari.

India will be the biggest market for his group's future plant, on par with the EU, where it plans to sell 50% of its output.

"The EU is already an established market for us. We are selling almost 0.5 million mt of third-party steel products globally, including 100,000 mt in the EU," said Chaudhari.

Quotas, tariffs to lapse with CBAM full roll out

The chairman is unfazed by the EU's approved safeguard measures that slash tariff-free steel import volumes by 47% and double the duty rate on excess shipments to 50%.

"Once the EU's CBAM is fully implemented -- right by the time our plant will be operational -- those other market protections could be removed," he said, but made a caveat that there will be more shifts and changes to adapt to.

"Steel trade is evolving quite a bit. Southeast Asia is becoming a regional market. India, a major steel exporter until recently, became a net importer last year. Chinese steel is, of course, going around quite a lot, and the Chinese have set up mills in Indonesia and Malaysia to export to Europe. We have to keep our ears and eyes open to survive in this market, but our global presence is helping us," concluded Chaudhari.