BMW Group concludes agreements for supply of low-carbon steel

“Steel is one of the main sources of CO₂ emissions in our supply chain. That is why we are comprehensively reorganising our steel portfolio – so we can supply our global production network with over one third of CO₂-reduced steel from 2026. This will reduce the carbon footprint of our supply chain by 900kt per year, while at the same time driving the transformation of the steel industry,” said Joachim Post, member of the Board of Management of BMW AG.

In the medium term, the BMW Group will increase CO₂ savings through agreements with additional steel suppliers. 20% of supply chain CO₂ emissions for a mid-sized fully-electric vehicle are attributable to steel – which comes in third, after battery cells and aluminium.

For the Americas region, agreements have already been reached with domestic steel producers Steel Dynamics (SDI) and Big River Steel, a U. S. Steel facility, to use renewable energy sources in their local steel production.

In the US and Mexico, about half of the BMW Group’s flat steel requirements are supplied by the electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking process, which relies on electrical energy to melt down iron and steel scrap.

The BMW Group has also set up closed-loop material cycles for sheet steel waste with several steel suppliers. When they deliver steel coils to the plants, the manufacturers take steel remnants, such as those produced at press plants when doors are punched out, away with them and use this material to produce new steel. This steel is then sent back to the BMW Group plants. In this way, raw materials can be used multiple times in a circular economy, thereby conserving natural resources.

Source: BMW Group