Rio Tinto and POSCO, the largest steel producer in South Korea and one of the world’s leading steel producers, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to jointly explore, develop and demonstrate technologies to transition to a low-carbon emission steel value chain.

The partnership will explore a range of technologies for decarbonization across the entire steel value chain from iron ore mining to steelmaking, including integrating Rio Tinto’s iron ore processing technology and POSCO’s steelmaking technology.

Rio Tinto says that the MoU with POSCO underlines Rio Tinto’s commitment to working in partnerships with customers on steel decarbonisation pathways and to invest in technologies that could deliver reductions in steelmaking carbon intensity of at least 30% from 2030 or with potential to deliver carbon neutral steelmaking pathways by 2050. Both Rio Tinto and POSCO share the ambition to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

As one of South Korea’s leading industrial companies, POSCO’s efforts to decarbonize will play an important role in achieving the country’s recently announced ambition to become carbon-neutral by 2050.