Steelmaking has to get greener. But who'll pay?
钢铁行业必需变得愈加环保。但谁来为此买单?
Dates assigned to environmental targets often seem reassuringly - or complacently - distant.
为完成环保目的定下的日期每每悠远得令人放心或得意。
By 2050, the British government has promised, the country's net emissions of greenhouse gases will be zero.
英国当局答应,到2050年,英国将完成温室气体“净零排放”。
Its advisers on the Climate Change Committee have recommended that steelmaking, which belches about one-tenth of Britain's industrial emissions, should be "near-zero" by 2035.
英国天气变革委员会的参谋发起,到2035年,钢铁行业的排放量应该“靠近于零”。而现在,这个数字约占英国产业排放量的非常之一。
If that sounds leisurely, it is anything but.
这听起来不是什么要紧事,但现实绝非云云。
Both steelmakers and ministers must make uncomfortable decisions, involving billions of pounds and thousands of jobs, uncomfortably soon.
钢铁制造商和部长们必需尽快做出决议,这些令人烦懑的决议事关数十亿英镑和数千个任务岗亭。
Britain's two biggest industrial emitters are steelworks: Tata Steel UK's at Port Talbot in south Wales and British Steel's at Scunthorpe in Lincolnshire.
英国最大的两个产业排放者是:位于南威尔士塔尔伯特港的塔塔钢铁英国公司,和位于林肯郡斯肯索普的英国钢铁公司。
Both make iron and then steel in blast and basic oxygen furnaces, using iron ore, coke - made from coal - and other materials.
这两家公司都运用铁矿石、用煤制成的焦炭和其他资料,在鼓风炉和碱性氧气炉中先炼铁,然后炼钢。
A first step to greener steel would be to switch to electric arc furnaces (EAFS), in which the main inputs are scrap steel and electricity.
让钢铁行业更环保的第一步是改用电弧炉(EAFS),用这种炉子冶炼投入的次要是废钢和电力。
(The total cut in carbon emissions depends on how the electricity is generated.)
(碳排放的总增加量取决于发电方法。)
British Steel is also looking at carbon capture.
英国钢铁公司也在思索运用碳捕捉技能。
A further green goal for the global industry is to use hydrogen in "direct reduction", a process that reduces iron ore to metallic iron for feeding into EAFS.
环球钢铁行业的另一个环保目的是在“间接复原”中运用氢能,“间接复原”是一种将铁矿石复原为金属铁的进程,复原后的金属可以运用电弧炉再次冶炼。
The clock is ticking: one blast furnace at Port Talbot will need replacing, refurbishing or decommissioning in perhaps three years.
时钟在滴答作响:塔尔伯特港的鼓风炉能够要在三年内改换、创新或正式停用。
The cost of switching Port Talbot to EAFS has been put at up to 3bn Pounds ($3.6bn).
把塔尔伯特港的原有设置装备摆设全部换为电弧炉的本钱估计将高达30亿英镑(合36亿美元)。
Upgrading Scunthorpe will also cost a ten-figure sum.
斯肯索普的设置装备摆设晋级也将破费十位数的金额。
These would be gulpworthy amounts even in a thriving industry.
即便是在发达开展的行业,这些数字也令人难以承受。
But steel in Britain is struggling.
但英国的钢铁行业正在困难抗争。
Last year output slid by 16% to 6.1m tonnes, the lowest amount since 1932.
客岁,英国钢铁产量下滑16%,至610万吨,为1932年以来的最低值。
British Steel, bought out of insolvency by Jingye, a Chinese company, in 2020, is reportedly contemplating 800 job cuts at Scunthorpe.
英国钢铁公司于2020年被中国敬业团体收买,现在英国钢铁公司正思索在斯肯索普裁人800人。
Last month Liberty Steel said it would reduce production at its EAF in Rotherham, in Yorkshire, and idle other facilities; as many as 400 jobs may go.
上个月,自在钢铁公司表现,将增加约克郡罗瑟勒姆电弧炉的钢铁产量,停用其他设备;并能够会裁人多达400人。
Indian-owned Tata Steel UK did make a profit before tax in 2021-22, but that was the first for 13 years.
印度拥有的塔塔钢铁英国公司在2021-22年完成了税前红利,但这是13年以来的第一次。