On December 15, Hyundai Steel obtained the Norwegian EPD, one of Europe’s major Environmental Product Declarations (EPD), for its wire rod products.
Norwegian EPD presentation ceremony with Commercial Councilor Roger Martinsen
EPD is a system that quantitatively discloses the environmental impact across a product’s entire lifecycle, from the raw material extraction to the production, distribution, use, and disposal of a products or service. Consumers can use this system as an indicator, to make informed choices for eco-friendly products.
A certification presentation ceremony, held at Hyundai Steel’s Pangyo Office, was attended by Roger Martinsen, Commercial Councilor at the Norwegian Embassy in Korea, who presented the certification. The discussion that took place during the event covered the current status of key industries and efforts towards achieving carbon neutrality between the two countries.
Across various industries, there is a growing trend for calculating and publicly disclosing the environmental performance of manufactured products, to transparently reveal their environmental impact. Keeping in step with this trend, Hyundai Steel has been obtaining EPDs in the United States and Europe – key markets for steel products – since 2019. On the Korean front, the company has secured EPDs for a total of 16 products, ranging from sheet materials to construction materials. This initiative is geared towards offering a wide range of options for both domestic and international customers.
Typically, wire rod products are produced through a blast furnace process that melts iron ore, as opposed to an electric furnace process that uses scrap as the primary raw material, to ensure a better product quality. However, Hyundai Steel has achieved both quality assurance and carbon reductions by incorporating high-purity molten iron produced in a blast furnace into the electric furnace process for its manufacturing. The outcome of this approach has been validated with this EPD certification.
Additionally, Hyundai Steel is in the process of developing “low-carbon tire cord steel” through a recent technological collaboration with a tire cord manufacturer, while transitioning from conventional blast furnace products to electric furnace products. It is also actively engaged in development and procurement activities aimed at leveraging the advantages of high-quality and low carbon materials. This includes ongoing discussions with global electronics companies for the purpose of supplying low-carbon wire ore products.