For over 60 years, New Zealand Steel has been the country’s only fully integrated producer of flat and rolled steel products, supporting construction, manufacturing, and infrastructure. Until now, steelmaking has relied on a primary steelmaking process using coal and ironsand. The Electric Arc Furnace (EAF), scheduled to be commissioned and fully operational in early 2026, represents a decisive move towards decarbonisation.

Unlike the traditional basic oxygen furnace process, the EAF uses electricity supplied by our highly renewable grid, supplied in partnership with Contact Energy. Just as importantly, the furnace will enable the large-scale recycling of scrap steel generated in New Zealand — material that currently leaves our shores. By keeping this resource in circulation, we will help close the loop on steel use, reducing embodied carbon while strengthening local supply resilience.

The impact is substantial. Pacific Steel reinforcing produced via the EAF is projected to cut embodied carbon by up to 52% with a standard blend, and by as much as 88% with a higher-scrap blend compared to current methods, under the new reinforcing product PACIFIC DCRB. For architects and engineers, this translates into lower upfront carbon in projects, helping to meet New Zealand’s climate commitments and Green Star building benchmarks.

Transparency is central to this journey. Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for Pacific Steel reinforcing are already available and published. Upcoming EPDs will cover structural plate, metallic coated products such as Axxis steel for framing, and the iconic COLORSTEEL range, giving architects clear data to model embodied carbon and design for lower-impact outcomes.

Independent modelling has shown that substituting conventional steel with lower-carbon steel from the EAF can reduce the embodied carbon of some typical warehouses or office building designs by around 35% — a meaningful shift that demonstrates the real-world impact of this innovation.

To give the design community a closer look at progress, New Zealand Steel is hosting mill tours, offering architects the chance to see the EAF build firsthand. Attendance is worth 40 CPD points, and places can be arranged by contacting [email protected].

For architects, this marks a new era: the ability to specify steel that is not only strong and versatile, but also a driver of sustainable design.