Decarbonization and "green steel" were key themes at InnoTrans 2024, the world’s largest exhibition of rolling stock, which took place in Berlin in September. The Ukrainian industrial group Interpipe, which presented its wheel products under the KLW brand at the exhibition, emphasized that it is part of this environmental trend and even holds a leading position in this area.
As the company said in comments to the CFTS portal, European buyers of railway products used to focus on technical audits, but now environmental audits are taking precedence. Customers are increasingly asking manufacturers what steps they are taking to reduce CO2 emissions, which directly affects the carbon footprint of railway products. Therefore, Ukrainian manufacturers must meet decarbonization requirements despite the war and rising additional costs, including logistics costs.
"For us, the European market is like our home market. Therefore, InnoTrans was a platform where the company tried to convey a key message to our customers: Interpipe is one of the leaders in decarbonization, with our CO2 emissions among the best (i.e. lowest) in the industry. We have already achieved the Green Deal targets for 2030," said Oleksandr Harkavyi, director of Interpipe’s Rail Products Division.
"These results have been achieved through the launch of the Interpipe Steel electric steelmaking complex, which has dramatically reduced Scope 1 CO2 emissions. The company is also working to further reduce emissions, in particular by increasing the share of green electricity purchases, which has a positive impact on Scope 2 CO2 emissions," Harkavyi added.
He also noted that the company has a unique competitive advantage over other European manufacturers of railway products. According to him, this advantage lies in the fact that the company has its own raw material processing and steelmaking facilities, which are located at the same production site as its rolling and finishing lines for railway products.
This significantly minimizes Scope 3 CO2 emissions, while other companies that purchase steel and raw materials from third-party suppliers have a much larger carbon footprint.
