Green Car
With the high number of risks regarding climate change and how it could potentially lead to our extinction, it isn’t surprising that people are starting to take initiative. Some citizens are starting to recycle more, buy environmentally friendly products, and do-little things like spending less time in the shower. Looking at the auto industry, companies have started to break into the electric vehicle business, which has been proven to help the environment and push us towards being carbon neutral. Fortunately, they’ve been looking at the bigger picture. You’ve made the car cleaner, but the process of building that car?
As you all probably know, automotive companies use a lot of steel to manufacture their cars, which makes them one of the highest consumers of steel businesses. Steel businesses are also one of the highest emitters of fossil fuels, which is a problem. The good news is that steel manufacturers are looking for cleaner ways to produce steel, and auto companies are helping them. This isn’t necessarily a choice, especially in Europe, where their climate change proposal requires steel companies’ supply chain to be carbon neutral. Recently, car company Daimler, who owns Mercedes Benz, made a deal with SSAB, a Swedish steel company who uses hydrogen for their production. People are liking this as it provides a long-term solution that applies to every part of the automotive supply chain, but steel companies are still a bit hesitant. ArcelorMittal, one of the largest steel producers, says that production costs would rise by as much as 60 percent, but the benefits could easily outweigh the costs as it’s climate change, we are talking about here. Do you think more steel companies should make the switch?
I am not a financial advisor and my comments should never be taken as financial advice. Investments come with risk, so always do your research and analysis beforehand.
