Baowu Group and Rio Tinto Group deepen climate change partnership to help decarbonize the steel value chain

On June 12, Baowu Group, the world's largest steel company, signed a memorandum of cooperation with Rio Tinto Group, the world's largest iron ore producer. The two sides will jointly explore a series of industry-leading new projects in China and Australia, aiming to help decarbonize the steel industry value chain.

According to the memorandum of cooperation signed this time, Rio Tinto and Baowu Group will cooperate to promote specific decarbonization projects, which is another measure taken by both parties to fulfill their commitment to leading the industry's low-carbon transformation.
The memorandum of cooperation was signed in Shanghai by Alf Barrios, chief commercial officer and chairman of Rio Tinto Group, and Hou Angui, deputy general manager of Baowu Group. This is another cooperation between the two parties following the establishment of a joint venture to develop the Pilbara Western Slope Project in Western Australia, with an investment of US$2 billion.

Cooperation projects between the two parties include:
·Research, build and demonstrate a pillar-scale electric melting furnace at Baowu Group's steel mills to realize direct reduced iron (DRI) technology for low-carbon steel production that enables low-grade ore production.
·Optimize Australia ore production pellet technology to support its use as raw material for direct reduced iron production in low-carbon shaft furnaces.
·Expand the development of Baowu Group's hydrogen-rich carbon cycle oxygen blast furnace (HyCROF) technology, which can significantly reduce carbon dioxide emissions generated by the blast furnace process.
·Jointly study opportunities for producing green and low-carbon ironmaking in Western Australia.
These innovative projects are the positive results of 50 years of long-term cooperation between Rio Tinto and Baowu Group. Both sides commit to sharing resources and expertise to advance these initiatives.

Bai Ruiming, chief commercial officer and chairman of Rio Tinto Group in China, said: "Rio Tinto and Baowu Group are jointly committed to accelerating the provision of low-carbon solutions across the steel industry value chain. The vast majority of the world's iron ore is medium-to low-grade, and this memorandum of cooperation aims to solve one of the biggest challenges facing the industry by opening up a low-carbon path for these iron ore."
"China is committed to promoting low-carbon and high-quality green development, which coincides with Rio Tinto's strategy with climate change and low-carbon transformation at its core."
Simon Trott, CEO of Rio Tinto's iron ore business, said: "Rio Tinto and Baowu Group have been working together successfully in Western Australia for more than 40 years, and we are deeply proud of it. We are committed to creating broad prospects for the Pilbara iron ore ore in the green steel world and look forward to advancing research on the low-carbon ironmaking potential of Western Australia."
Baowu Group stated that Baowu takes the mission of "jointly building an industrial ecosystem to promote the progress of human civilization" and is willing to work with Rio Tinto to study and propose low-carbon and green comprehensive solutions for the steel value chain to help the low-carbon and green transformation of the steel industry chain. and upgrade, and support the global active response to climate change with practical actions.
Ni said that the cooperation with Baowu Group has a long history, covering project development, new technology research and deployment in Australia and Guinea, as well as carbon emission reduction in steel production.