This article was first published in Millenium Steel’s America edition in December 2025.

On average, producing one metric ton (mt) of steel emits 1.9mt of CO₂. The blast furnace–basic oxygen furnace route still dominates with about 70% of global output, and even when natural gas replaces coal, emissions remain high at roughly 1.4mt of CO₂ per mt of steel. Scrap-based electric arc furnaces can bring that figure down to 0.7mt, but recycled steel alone cannot meet global demand. Aluminum faces the same tension: primary production is energy-intensive, while secondary routes can cut emissions by up to 95%, but scrap flows remain insufficient.

There is no single fix. Carbon capture and storage remain costly, biomass availability is limited and hydrogen-based reduction – promising as it is – will not scale until at least the 2030s. Electrolysis is advancing, but at pilot scale. In parallel, the transition risks leaving downstream processes short of process gas energy.

The hard truth is that easy solutions for aluminum and steelmaking do not exist. At the same time, growth and decarbonization are non-negotiable. We must move beyond stating them as two separate goals and instead, forge a unified pathway through automation, electrification and data-driven operations. One where each ton produced is greener, smarter and more resilient.

The multiplier on every ton

Well-designed automation turns variability into a manageable parameter rather than a risk. Advanced process control (APC) and closed-loop quality systems stabilize furnaces, mills and casters, lifting yield while cutting energy per metric ton. In steelmaking, where operating windows are tight and disturbances frequent, automation is the only scalable way to run closer to constraints without breaching them.

Across pelletizing, grinding and rolling, APC has delivered low-single-digit energy savings alongside throughput increases – exactly the kind of ‘boring but bankable’ improvements that compound across a site. In melt shops, orchestrating crane movements, ladle routing and thermal management with real-time recommendations has lifted casting speeds by several percentage points while reducing arcing and superheat drift. With digital tools such as ABB Ability Smart Melt Shop, these improvements become scalable and repeatable across sites. One integrated site that we worked on translated those changes into the equivalent of 24,000 extra tons per year without new steelmaking capacity. That is abatement through productivity.

According to worldsteel, many mills can still unlock 15–20% efficiency improvements in energy and CO₂ simply by standardizing to best practice and tightening control around existing assets. This is the cheapest decarbonization “project” most plants will ever fund.

Cutting carbon at the source

Electrification is the sector’s decisive lever because it replaces fossil inputs outright. The industry is already moving; direct reduced iron feeding electric arc furnaces are scaling up and secondary steelmaking is expanding where scrap flows allow, and high-temperature electric process heating is maturing. Electric heating technologies are also advancing, though they remain best suited today for lower- and mid-temperature processes rather than the ultra-high heat required for primary steelmaking. Even so, progress is significant: these solutions are already enabling fossil-free energy use in areas once considered impossible for electrification, and further development will open the door to more energy-intensive stages of production.

Our work with Coolbrook exemplifies electrification married to innovation. We co-developed the RotoDynamic Heater – an electric turbomachine capable of heating gas streams above 1,700 °C with very high efficiency, without burning fuel. That capability opens entirely new sections of our process route – like fully electric smelting – that were once thought electrification-proof. Early validation at pilot scale affirms that we can exchange fossil burners for electric units and decarbonize core process steps across steel and aluminum. When rolled out, it could cut millions of tons of CO₂ annually while also reducing reliance on volatile fuel markets.

For aluminum, the center of gravity is shifting toward scrap-rich, electricity-efficient routes. Recycling avoids up to 95% of direct CO₂ compared to primary production, and reshoring trends in North America are accelerating investment in mid- and downstream recycling capacity. Reshoring shortens supply chains, lowers transport emissions, and creates a more resilient base for growth.

But technology alone doesn’t transform emissions. It needs a systems approach: our electrification roadmap must align with renewable energy availability, grid capacity, power quality, and operational flexibility. Demand-side adjustment, storage buffering and load scheduling against clean-energy hours make electrification feasible, reliable, and economical.

Where data becomes direction

Data in isolation changes nothing. But when we fuse operational, electrical, maintenance, and business data into a unified fabric, decisions sharpen. Real-time alerts predict loss of thermal efficiency; digital twins let us simulate charge mixes and energy prices before committing production; predictive controllers guide the process onto its lowest-carbon path.

This integration delivers a cultural shift: every kilowatt and millimeter becomes measurable and improvable. Operations that once relied on gut feel now run on models and feedback loops – shrinking waste and reinforcing quality.

Digitalization is already playing a key role and there is growing awareness that this is the case. An ABB-led international survey found that an overwhelming majority of industry decision-makers consider digitalization essential to sustainability. Previously, only a small portion of the industry was digitally connected, but now widespread investment in big data and AI is transforming how steel manufacturers operate. Industrial IoT and predictive maintenance allow manufacturers to proactively address inefficiencies and reduce downtime, leading to both cost savings and lower emissions. Energy management systems, such as ABB Ability™ Energy Management System, optimize site-wide energy consumption, leading to tangible reductions in energy costs and emissions. 

As highlighted in ABB’s Do More with Digital campaign, these same technologies are also improving safety, asset reliability and overall productivity, demonstrating that digital transformation is the foundation for running smarter, cleaner and more resilient plants.

A forward-looking plan, organically deployed

The metals sector cannot treat automation, electrification and digitalization as isolated initiatives. Their impact comes when they reinforce one another: stabilizing legacy assets to capture the “known 20 percent” efficiency gap, electrifying high-heat processes with technologies like turbomachinery-based heaters, embedding digital twins to optimize decisions before they are executed, expanding the role of recycled feedstock, all the while securing operations against cyber risks. Each measure matters on its own; together they form a pathway where productivity and decarbonization compound.

The urgency is underscored by market signals. Steel already accounts for or 2.6 gigatons of CO₂ emissions annually, and without faster progress emissions could reach 2.8 gigatons by 2030. In China, avoiding 160 million tons of CO₂ will mean shifting tens of millions of tons of production from blast furnaces to electric arc furnaces. Meanwhile, India’s demand will surge by more than 200 million tons by 2030, while Europe faces stagnation and the U.S. grows steadily. Aluminum, too, is showing how emissions can fall even as production expands, thanks to recycling and renewables. These rapidly occurring market currents require equally decisive industrial responses.

The achievable destination

Global demand for steel and aluminum will keep expanding, but so will customer expectations for low-carbon materials. Automakers, construction companies and equipment manufacturers are already factoring embedded emissions into procurement decisions.

The producers who will thrive are those who integrate automation, electrification and digitalization into one transformation – grounded in engineering discipline, executed with data, and measured by results.

Future-proofing metals don’t have to be about chasing speculative possibilities. It is about taking decisive steps today: stabilize the process, electrify what can be electrified, instrument what cannot yet be, and use data to make every shift cleaner and more productive than the last. Those who move first will find that the most sustainable ton is also the most profitable.