The U.S. International Trade Commission (Commission or USITC) today released a U.S. Trade Representative (USTR)-requested report that calculates the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions intensities of U.S. steel and aluminum industries. The report, Greenhouse Gas Emissions Intensities of the U.S. Steel and Aluminum Industries at the Product Level, was requested by the USTR in a letter received on June 5, 2023.
USTR’s request letter asked the USITC to:
Calculate the GHG emissions intensity of steel and aluminum produced in the United States by product category in 2022, with data on scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.
Describe the methodologies the USITC used to collect relevant information and calculate the emissions intensity estimates.
Identify where emissions occur during manufacturing, with respect to the production stages and sourcing location of inputs.
To gather data for the calculation of product-level emissions intensity estimates, the USITC surveyed all U.S. facilities that produced the steel and aluminum products covered under the section 232 investigation in 2022.
This report conveys the Commission’s factual findings and analyses. The Commission makes no recommendations on policy or other matters in this report.
Major Findings of the Investigation
The processes and inputs used in U.S. steel and aluminum production drive their emission intensities.
Semifinished Steel
The average emissions intensity estimate for U.S. carbon and other alloy semifinished steel was 1.02 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per metric ton of steel (mt CO2e/mt steel) in 2022.
The emissions intensities estimates of U.S. carbon and alloy steel products are primarily influenced by two factors:
The production pathway (the more emissions-intensive blast furnace and basic oxygen furnace, or BF-BOF, pathway, versus the electric arc furnace, or EAF, pathway) used to produce the semifinished steel, which is used as substrate in mill products.
The relative use of emissions-intensive upstream material inputs like pig iron and direct reduced iron.
The average emissions intensity for U.S. stainless steel semifinished steel was 2.23 mt CO2e/mt steel in 2022. The emissions intensity of U.S. stainless steel products is mainly influenced by the reliance on emissions-intensive ferroalloy (an alloy of iron with a significant amount of one or more other elements, like chromium or nickel) inputs. All U.S. stainless semifinished steel-producing facilities reported operating an EAF. Therefore, variation in the production pathway does not drive emissions intensities for stainless steel. Read More→
https://www.usitc.gov/press_room/news_release/2025/er0227_66582.htm
