On Nov. 12, Australia’s Heavy Industry Low-carbon Transition Cooperative Research Centre welcomed POSCO as the first organization to join its group under a new partnership level for large global steelmakers. HILT CRC promotes global collaboration in developing low-carbon ironmaking technologies in Australia, which is the world’s largest iron ore producer.
Steelmaking accounted for up to 8% of global carbon emissions in 2024, according to the World Steel Association. Efforts to decarbonize the process could be incentivized by a premium for “green iron and steel products,” according to HILT CRC CEO Jenny Selway.
HILT CRC, whose partners include Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Australia Pty. Ltd. and German aerospace research center Deutsches Zentrum fuer Luft- und Raumfahrt e. V. among its partners, hopes that the addition of POSCO will further advance industry efforts to support the development of a green premium.
The research group provides insights and findings to help inform policy discussions and “ensure that there is a demand for green products,” Selway told Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights.
“It is really that green premium that people are chasing … and there are various levers that can be pulled that people might consider, like procurement policies,” Selway said. “Making sure that is done by the whole region is really important to grow demand globally for green steel products.”
“The more partners that we have in HILT CRC, that collective voice [to encourage green premiums] just becomes that much louder, particularly when we have international partners [like POSCO] as part of the mix,” Selway said.
Reliance on iron ore
South Korea’s iron ore imports from Australia have increased annually since 2022, reaching 53.8 million metric tons in 2024, accounting for 72.78% of its volume that year, according to S&P Global Commodities at Sea. However, this figure remains below a high of 60.6 million mt recorded in 2021.
According to HILT CRC, POSCO sources 70% of its iron ore imports from Australia. CAS data show that POSCO has accounted for the majority of South Korea’s imports since 2017, alongside Hyundai Steel Co.
Given its significant reliance on Australia for this steelmaking commodity, POSCO’s membership in HILT CRC “highlights the mutual benefits of closer engagement between Australian and international organizations in the global transition to a low-carbon economy,” the research group said in a statement Nov. 12.
“We see tremendous value in collaborating with HILT CRC,” Jinchul Baung, POSCO’s primary representative for the partnership, said in the statement. “As the global steel industry faces pressure to reduce emissions, innovative low-carbon ironmaking technologies will be pivotal to achieving our sustainability targets.”
Strategic location
Australia is one of POSCO’s “most important strategic locations” for its green hydrogen exports, as well as for its overseas green steel business model, according to POSCO Australia’s website.
POSCO already plans to build a hot briquetted iron plant using its Midrex direct reduction process technology in Port Hedland, from where a significant portion of the world’s iron ore is exported. Western Australia’s Environmental Protection Authority approved the plant in August.
POSCO also signed a memorandum of understanding in October with BHP Group Ltd. A planned integrated demonstration plant in Pohang, South Korea, with a capacity of 300,000 mt/y will trial BHP’s iron ore from Western Australia’s Pilbara region in a hydrogen-based low-carbon ironmaking process.
When commissioned in 2028, the plant will be the first facility to utilize hydrogen-based fluidized bed reactor technology integrated with an electric smelting furnace for ironmaking at scale, according to POSCO.
“Having a company that has those technologies already underway and in development is hugely important for Australia just to have that technical expertise here in the country,” Selway said.
These moves follow the Green Economy Partnership Arrangement on Climate and Energy, which Australia’s government signed with South Korea in December 2024. Under the partnership, working groups focus on low-emission iron ore and steel, carbon capture utilization and storage, and clean hydrogen.