Metsims

Metals Industry

Steel, aluminium and other metals are essential to construction, automotive, machinery, energy infrastructure and consumer products, but primary production is energy- and carbon-intensive.

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01 / Sector Context

Metals and the Sustainability Transition

Steel, aluminium and other metals are essential to construction, automotive, machinery, energy infrastructure and consumer products, but primary production is energy- and carbon-intensive. Environmental performance varies substantially by production route, ore or scrap input, electricity source, fuel mix, yield, alloy composition and recycling practice. The sector is therefore at the centre of industrial decarbonisation and low-carbon procurement. Customers increasingly expect product-specific embedded-emissions data, while producers need to distinguish plant-level improvement from allocation and product-level carbon accounting across complex production systems.

02 / Sustainability Priorities & Regulation

Sustainability Priorities and Regulatory Landscape

The EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism entered its definitive regime on 1 January 2026 and covers iron and steel and aluminium alongside other sectors. Following the 2025 simplification, EU importers exceeding the current 50-tonne annual mass threshold across relevant mass-based CBAM sectors are generally subject to the authorisation, declaration and certificate framework. This makes robust installation and product embedded-emissions data commercially important for non-EU producers supplying European customers. EU ETS continues to shape European metal production, while ESPR identifies iron, steel and aluminium among priority intermediate products for ecodesign work.

  • Process decarbonisation

    Efficiency, electrification, renewable electricity and lower-carbon process routes.

  • Scrap and recycled content

    Optimisation that accounts for scrap quality, alloy requirements and losses.

  • Product carbon data

    Controlled allocation from installation measurements to customer-level footprints.

  • CBAM readiness

    Robust embedded-emissions information for covered EU imports.

  • Technology pathways

    Scenario analysis of fuel, electricity, yield and production-route investments.

  • Customer and EPD evidence

    Consistent data supporting PCFs, declarations and low-carbon procurement.

For producers, priorities include furnace and process efficiency, electrification, renewable electricity, scrap and recycled-content optimisation, lower-carbon reductants, process technology, yield improvement and product-specific carbon data. Primary and secondary metal routes should be compared carefully because scrap quality, alloy requirements, electricity mix and recycling losses influence results. Customer PCF requests and CBAM data can often draw on similar underlying process information, but boundaries, allocation rules and verification requirements need to be managed explicitly.

03 / Metsims Support

How Metsims Can Support the Metals Sector

Metsims can support metal producers and downstream manufacturers with CBAM embedded-emissions calculations, product carbon footprints, LCA and EPD, corporate Scope 1-3 inventories, recycled-content and material scenarios, and decarbonisation roadmaps. Process-level models can test changes in fuel, electricity, scrap share, yield and production route to quantify their effect on both product and corporate emissions.

Metsims can also help establish traceable data structures linking installation measurements, product allocation, customer PCFs and regulatory reporting. For investment planning, scenario analysis can compare technology pathways and carbon-cost exposure. The objective is to create one controlled emissions-data system that supports CBAM, customer requirements, product declarations and long-term industrial decarbonisation.

04 / Related Services

Related Services

Selected from Metsims’ service portfolio according to the principal sustainability and regulatory needs of the metals sector.

05 / Metals Industry Advisors

Meet Our Metals Industry Advisors

Industrial understanding and multidisciplinary depth. Select an advisor to open their dedicated Metsims profile.

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