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Fortescue expects to meet China’s growing demand for green iron: Australian iron ore giant Fortescue expects its pilot green metal project in Western Australia to meet China’s increasing demand for green iron when it kicks off operations next year, Reuters reports, citing statements by Fortescue’s head of green energy Mark Hutchinson during an analyst call. “What’s become quite evident in China … is their insatiable demand for green products … that’s why we’re putting so much effort into our green iron plants in Christmas Creek,” Hutchinson said on the call.
About the facility: The USD 50 mn plant will produce 1.5k tons per year of high-purity green iron using renewable energy, with production expected to begin in 2025, Fortescue said earlier this month. It will use green hydrogen from Fortescue’s large-scale hydrogen facility, along with an electric smelting furnace, to produce high purity green iron.
US imports of Chinese UCO to surge as demand picks up: US imports of Chinese used cooking oil (UCO), a feedstock for biofuels, are expected to jump to record highs in the coming months driven by increased demand and biofuel incentives, Reuters reports. US imports of UCO in total exceeded 1.36 mn metric tons (mt) in 2023, up from about 400k mt a year earlier, according to US government data. The imports increased further from the start of the year to June to see China accounting for 60% of the 1 mn mt of UCO imported by the US, the data shows.
The trend’s future is uncertain: The US government plans to transition from a volume-based incentive system to one that rewards biofuel producers based on carbon intensity. The shift could favor UCO, which has a lower carbon footprint compared to other biodiesel feedstocks like soybean oil. However, US farm-state lobbyists are pushing to extend the current tax credits, arguing that low-cost UCO imports are hurting domestic commodity prices. Concerns over the potential contamination of Chinese UCO with virgin palm oil have prompted the US Environmental Protection Agency to audit supply chains.
