Project nominated for the Excellence in LCA Steelie Award 2022
Steel has a long-standing position in the automotive sector due in part to its low carbon footprint compared to alternative materials.
Steelmakers have made significant improvements in the last decades to decrease the overall energy consumption and emissions from all life cycle stages.
Steel is transformed into a variety of products to serve the automotive industry. On average, flat steel products make up around 60% of a vehicle’s body-in-white (BIW) today. The emergence of hot stamping has led to steel products with very high strength and increased safety properties.
Higher strength means that the same function is accomplished with less material, which means that hot stamping grades reduce the material demand for the production of vehicles. The hot stamping steel grades are heated and annealed before the steel blank is actually formed in the press, whereas in the traditional approach, the component is cold formed.
However, the carbon footprint performance between the hot stamping and cold stamping is still unknown to the customers. ArcelorMittal has carried out a study to assess the life cycle carbon footprint of steel components that are produced by hot and cold stamping for the automotive sector.
The results show the benefits of hot stamping and its light weighting contributions to the overall environmental performance. The study helped to strengthen the relationship with clients by providing and sharing the life cycle carbon footprint of steel products.
Meanwhile, it also clearly helped the clients to better understand the contribution of steel products in the automotive sector from a life cycle perspective.