A greener tomorrow

Sustainable manufacturing practices have been on notice for a while, but a Sydney company has pledged to define a greener tomorrow with a world first today.

Within two years, Australia is set to have its first-ever carbon-neutral steel mill, with Whyalla in South Australia the preferred location.

The force behind this groundbreaking facility is Greensteel Australia, which plans to implement advanced technology in service of a hydrogen-powered steel furnace.

It’s a bold innovation strategy, but according to Greensteel Australia Co-Founders Mena and Romany Ibrahim, innovation is oxygen in a competitive market.

“Businesses that don’t innovate will die,” Mena, Greensteel’s President and Executive Director, tells The CEO Magazine.

“It’s not always easy to innovate, but one advantage of being privately owned is we can move quickly.”

Sons of an Egyptian immigrant who built a property development empire from scratch, the Ibrahim brothers inherited a strong instinct for entrepreneurship.

“Our father arrived in Australia with little other than raw ambition and a belief in hard work,” Mena says.

“For us, he was a business masterclass. He instilled in us the fundamentals of business: integrity, respect for everyone from clients to staff and diligent cash flow management.”

Flexible entrepreneurs

The Ibrahims’ confidence in seeking to revolutionize steelmaking in Australia is born from their success in building, over 20 years, a portfolio of businesses that now spans radiology, early education, construction and development, as well as Reosteel, a Sydney-based manufacturer of reinforced steel (rebar) for the construction industry.

The brothers established Reosteel in 2020 after seeing how poorly serviced their own construction sites were by existing suppliers of rebar.

“Along with concrete, reinforced steel is one of the main inputs into construction, so you would think it was a competitive market with highly focused suppliers. We found that wasn’t the case, and we thought we could do it better,” Romany says.

Reosteel is now one of the fastest-growing suppliers of rebar on the eastern seaboard, having expanded from its Sydney base with operations in Canberra, where the Ibrahims have several major development projects underway.

A bold vision

With Greensteel Australia, Mena and Romany aim to fill what they see as a critical gap in Australia’s manufacturing capability.

“Our vision is about fundamentally reshaping Australia’s manufacturing landscape,” Mena says. “It’s not just about building a green steel mill; it’s about acting as a catalyst for a whole new green economy.”

Whyalla is their ideal location, offering an established steelmaking workforce, high-quality iron magnetite – a critical raw material for steelmaking – as well as port facilities and ample renewable energy.

Greensteel plans to build a 600 MW hydrogen unit to produce direct reduced iron, which will then be converted into steel via two electric furnaces and rolling mills – one for reinforced steel and the other for structural steel. With a 1.2 million-ton capacity, the mill would be 2.5 times larger than the existing Whyalla mill, currently under administration.

Signaling Greensteel’s intent, the first rolling mill contract was awarded last October to Italian green steelmaking pioneers Danieli. Construction is due to start in 2025, with completion expected in two years.

Mena says the project will help restore Australia’s ability to manufacture critical goods.

“We have to restore our ability to manufacture strategically important goods right here at home,” he says.

Romany highlights one key shortfall: “Consider this: Australia aspires to build high-speed rail networks, vital infrastructure for our future. Yet today, we cannot even manufacture the tracks. They must be imported. Greensteel is designed to directly address this.”

Greensteel Australia’s advantages go beyond zero-emissions.

“Our core differentiator is simple: we deliver genuinely 100 percent green steel as the market demands. No offsets, no compromises,” Romany says.

“Beyond green, we offer superior steel. Our Danieli technology ensures exceptional quality and performance, not just environmental virtue.”

Lifeline for Whyalla community

Greensteel’s plan also presents a neat solution to the uncertainty faced by the Whyalla community.

“The current administration of the Whyalla steelworks could take 18 months to resolve. Our mill can be up and running within two years. It has a footprint of only 70 hectares compared to 1,000 hectares for the existing steel works,” Mena says.

“There is no reason we couldn’t start construction on a site next to the existing steelworks, ready for the workforce to transition at the completion of the administration period. That reduces a lot of the uncertainty for workers and the local community.”

As Australia continues to reach for its net zero goals and the shift to lower-carbon supply chains continues, a change of practice across the industry is a critical factor for success.

“We want to leave a legacy of innovation and sustainability, demonstrating that commercial success and environmental responsibility can go hand in hand. For Whyalla, we would be creating a green steelmaking hub that is financially sustainable over the long-term and underwrites future-proofed jobs,” Mena says.