China Steel's“IF Automotive Steel RC30”Earns MOEA Green Product Certification for Resource Recycling

To align with the growing global demand for low-carbon steel materials, China Steel Corporation (CSC) has been actively developing and promoting steel products with high recycled content since 2021. The company’s portfolio now encompasses hot-rolled, cold-rolled, galvanized, wire rod, and electrical steel, with recycled content levels spanning from RC12 to RC90. In this context,“RC”denotes Recycled Content; for example, RC30 steel contains 30% recycled steel scrap.

CSC is the first steelmaker worldwide to obtain UL verification for recycled material content and has secured a total of 14 UL 2809 certificates to date. Recently, CSC's“IF Automotive Steel RC30”was honored with the Green Product Certification for Resource Recycling by Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA). On the 24th, Wang Jun-yu, Director of CSC's Environmental Protection Department, accepted the certificate on behalf of the company from Wu Zhen-hua, Head of the Sustainable Development Division at the Industrial Development Administration (IDA), at the National Taiwan University GIS Convention Center.

As the automotive industry accelerates toward carbon neutrality, major automakers are investing in lightweight vehicle bodies to reduce emissions and extend driving range, while actively seeking low-carbon materials that deliver both high performance and sustainability. Interstitial-Free (IF) steel is an ultra-low-nitrogen grade known for its excellent crystalline structure and minimal impurities. It offers superior deep-drawing properties, ductility, and surface quality—making it ideal for complex automotive components such as side outer panels, rear wheel arch inner panels, and front fenders.

Producing IF automotive steel requires stringent molten-steel purity and precise control of residual elements such as carbon (C) and nitrogen (N). Consequently, the scrap steel addition ratio for such high-formability steels in the converter process was historically limited to around 10%.

In recent years, CSC has dedicated itself to advancing low-carbon production technologies. Through continuous collaboration between its production and technical divisions, CSC successfully developed innovations to increase scrap usage in the converter process, including:

*Converter thermal energy compensation

*Rapid melting of large volumes of scrap steel

*Secondary refining temperature elevation

These breakthroughs overcome long-standing challenges in thermal balance and molten-steel control associated with higher scrap ratios. CSC has also established a big-data-driven digital model for steelmaking reactions, enabling real-time optimization of process parameters based on varying scrap ratios. Together, these advancements have pushed the scrap addition limit from 10% to 30%, allowing CSC to produce high-recycled-content steels such as“IF Automotive Steel RC30" that meet stringent customer requirements for quality and performance.

CSC's“IF Automotive Steel RC30" obtained UL 2809 RC30 validation for galvanized products earlier this year and has now been recognized with the MOEA’s Green Product Certificate. This achievement highlights CSC’s solid progress in promoting the circular economy, advancing environmental sustainability, and deepening green manufacturing, while reinforcing its strong technical foundation in low-carbon innovation.

Facing increasingly stringent global environmental regulations, CSC remains committed to the principles that“Industrial upgrading begins with materials" and that“CSC succeeds when its customers succeed." The company will continue expanding its portfolio of high-recycled-content steel products, driving the sustainable transformation of Taiwan's steel supply chain, and moving together with customers toward a net-zero future.