LONDON, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Higher power prices in Britain
than in other European countries will weigh on efforts by the
steel sector to reduce its carbon emissions, an industry group
said on Tuesday in a report calling for network cost cuts.
British steel producers pay 61% more for electricity than
rivals in Germany and 51% more than in France, trade association
UK Steel said in a report.
The global steel industry is one of the world's biggest CO2
emitters, accounting for 11% of emissions, according to the
Global Energy Monitor.
Among other recommendations, the UK steel report said the
British government should implement power network cost
reductions similar to those in Germany and France in order to
help the industry reduce its CO2 impact.
"In the last year, the gap between electricity prices paid
by UK and European steelmakers has almost doubled," said Gareth
Stace, director general of the group.
"The sector will struggle to decarbonise, investing in new,
highly electricity intensive equipment, if UK power prices
remain this far above those of our competitors."
Converting Britain's coal-powered blast furnaces to
hydrogen-based steelmaking could increase electricity use by
250%, while converting them to electric arc methods would
increase it by 150%, the report said.
At current power prices it would cost almost 300 million
pounds ($398 million) a year more to run a hydrogen-based steel
sector in Britain than in Germany.
($1 = 0.7544 pounds)
(Reporting by Eric Onstad; Editing by Alexander Smith)