With increased attention on the environmental agenda, worldsteel is looking at how remanufacturing activities impact the steel industry.

While remanufacturing will lead to some savings of steel used in certain products, it is also important to recognise that remanufacturing steel products is elementary given its longevity and durability, and that steel is also a key enabler of remanufacturing.

worldsteel is working with Oakdene Hollins, a circular economy consultancy, to develop a remanufacturing tracker, the Steel Remanufacturer Tracker, to track the development of remanufacturing activities in Europe and their impact on steel demand.

The tracker is currently available to members of the Remanufacturing Working Group via the worldsteel extranet (password-protected). We plan to make the tracker publicly available after the metrics are updated with the 2022 dataset.

If you are interested in becoming a member or would like to see the tracker in operation, please contact the team through either their LinkedIn page or the form.

The Tracker contains 12 metrics on remanufacturing activities and 3 metrics on the impact on steel, which have been developed based on the survey of the remanufacturers and experts in the field.

The Tracker covers domestic appliances; automotive, heavy-duty and off-road vehicles; machinery and rails. The dashboard of the Tracker also provides detailed guidelines on how it should be used.

Remanufacturing and steel metrics

  • Efficiency of the remanufacturing process
  • Average/Typical percentage mass of product retained during remanufacturing
  • Cost of core acquisition
  • Demand for remanufactured products
  • Growth in remanufacturing operations
  • Growth of OEM investment into remanufacturing
  • Inclusion in public procurement policy
  • National Targets for remanufacturing and/or reuse
  • New entrants to remanufacturing
  • Percentage of business from remanufacturing
  • Remanufacturing profit margin
  • Remanufacturing standard
  • Expected product lifetime for remanufactured product
  • Steel impact on manufacturability
  • Trends in levels of steel retention

In 2021, worldsteel and Oakdene Hollins created the Remanufacturing Working Group (RWG), a platform for experts to discuss the development of remanufacturing activities in specific steel-using sectors.

worldsteel will help the RWG members to estimate the environmental benefits of their remanufacturing activities from a life cycle perspective.