Evraz has delivered a pilot batch of ‘green rails’, which the steelmaker says were manufactured with a carbon footprint of 0·5 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per tonne of steel, four times lower than traditional blast furnace/converter technology.

Evraz said the low carbon footprint was achieved using an electrometallurgical method with renewable energy and an increased share of scrap metal in furnace load.

The first 5 000 tonne batch of rails was produced at the Evraz ZSMK plant and delivered to Russian Railways. The Type DT350 rails were made in 100 m and 25 m lengths, and types DT350SS, DT370IK and DT350NN could also be produced.