SEASON 4 - Coming soon
THE GREEN STEEL CHALLENGE PODCAST
A trailblazing podcast, created by The Willy Korf Foundation and Kallanish Commodities, to invite conversation, ignite innovation and accelerate change in the steel industry.
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ABOUT THE PODCAST
The Green Steel Challenge
The Green Steel Challenge returns for Season 4 with one question at its heart: what will it really take to decarbonise steel at scale?
Across three seasons, the podcast has brought together some of the most interesting voices in steel, energy, technology and finance. Season 4 pushes the conversation further, focusing on the ideas, innovations and decisions that could shape the industry’s next phase.
The challenge is no longer simply identifying possible solutions. It is about making them work at scale. Which technologies are ready? Where is investment flowing? What role will energy, raw materials, policy and demand play? And what still needs to change?
Steel remains essential to modern life and central to the energy transition, but it is also responsible for around seven percent of global carbon emissions. That makes its decarbonisation one of industry’s biggest and most urgent challenges.
Inspired by steel pioneer Willy Korf, the Green Steel Challenge was created to encourage bold thinking, open debate and practical ideas. Produced by The Willy Korf Foundation and Kallanish Commodities, the podcast brings together voices from across the steel value chain and beyond.
Astrid Korf-Wolman, Dr Mike Walsh and James Moss return to speak with industry leaders, innovators and challengers about what is changing, what is working and what could come next.
Season 4 is about moving the conversation forward: from ambition to action, from ideas to scale, and from challenge to opportunity.
BROWSE EPISODES
THE GREEN STEEL CHALLENGE
Live Episodes
Coming Soon
- SEASON 4
Is green steel economically viable? Inside Saarstahl’s €4.6 billion bet with Stefan Rauber
Live Episodes
SEASON 3 |
19/05/2026Marcel Genet is an independent Steel & Metals Consultant and Founder & Managing Director, Laplace Conseil in Neuilly, France. Marcel has been a consultant in the steel industry for 47 years.
SEASON 3 |
05/05/2026Gareth Stace, Director General of UK Steel, represents producers at a critical moment – where competitiveness, energy costs, and decarbonisation are colliding
SEASON 3 |
21/04/2026Dave Burritt is President and CEO of US Steel – one of the most iconic names in global steel. Under Dave’s leadership, US Steel has gone through a fundamental transformation
SEASON 3 |
07/04/2026Peter Kinzel is Vice President of Paul Wurth, ironmaking arm of SMS group, one of the engineering forces behind global steel production.
SEASON 3 |
24/03/2026Stefano Buono is the CEO of newcleo, a company developing next-generation reactors that run on recycled nuclear waste.
SEASON 3 |
10/03/2026Vale is one of the world’s largest producers of high-grade iron ore and nickel, headquartered in Brazil.
SEASON 3 |
24/02/2026World Steel Dynamics is a leading strategic information service that tracks, models, and forecasts steel industry trends – from pricing and trade to decarbonization and technology disruption.
SEASON 3 |
10/02/2026Pete Johnson, CEO and co-founder of Koloma, based in Denver, Colorado. Koloma is focused on exploring and developing geologic (or “natural”) hydrogen as a new low-carbon energy source.
SEASON 3 |
27/01/2026TV Narendran, CEO and Managing Director of Tata Steel, one of the world’s most respected steel companies, which is reimagining steelmaking through innovation, electrification, and new technologies.
SEASON 3 |
13/01/2026From global coordination and new steel geographies, to AI, demand-side reinvention, and country-scale hydrogen, the first six episodes reveal an industry transforming at every level. Find out more in this mid season round up.
SEASON 3 |
16/12/2025Plug Power is a U.S.-based pioneer in the hydrogen economy that builds the entire value chain: from electrolysers that produce green hydrogen, to liquefaction and storage systems, to fuel cells that use hydrogen in trucks, forklifts, and stationary power.
SEASON 3 |
02/12/2025InterContinental Energy develops gigawatt-scale renewable hydrogen and ammonia projects. Their flagship projects include Green Energy Oman (25 GW) and the Western Green Energy Hub (50 GW) in Australia.
SEASON 3 |
18/11/2025Steligence accelerates demand for green steel by providing concrete design frameworks that enhance economic and environmental performance in buildings.
SEASON 3 |
04/11/2025Fero Labs is a U.S.-based software company that develops explainable AI (XAI) tools for heavy industry, including steel, cement, chemicals, and energy.
SEASON 3 |
21/10/2025Meranti Green Steel, based in Singapore, is developing a 2.5 Mt/year HBI plant in Duqm, Oman, using renewable hydrogen to supply CBAM-compliant green iron to Europe by 2029.
SEASON 3 |
07/10/2025The World Steel Association (Worldsteel) is the global industry association accounting for around 85% of global steel production.
Coming Soon
LIVE EPISODES
SEASON 2 |
17/06/2025It’s the end of Series 2 and time for Astrid, James and Mike to wrap things up again. A lot of ground has been covered with a very eclectic mix of issues talked about – from innovation in hydrometallurgy to Middle Eastern carbon capture to global standards. The Green Steel Challenge continues…
SEASON 2 |
03/06/2025Annie Heaton is CEO of ResponsibleSteel, a global, not-for-profit organisation created to maximise steel’s contribution to a sustainable world.
SEASON 2 |
20/05/2025Michael Rion Chief Commercial Officer at Emirates Steel, part of the EMSTEEL GROUP, based in Abu Dhabi.Emsteel is a public joint stock company (ADX: EMSTEEL) and the UAE’s largest steel and building materials manufacturer.
SEASON 2 |
06/05/2025GSCC® leads an effort to reduce steel carbon emissions and encourage investments in lower-carbon emission technology.
SEASON 2 |
22/04/2025Linde is a leading global industrial gases and engineering company with 2023 sales of $33 billion. Their mission is to make the world more productive every day by providing high-quality solutions, technologies and services helping to sustain, decarbonize and protect our planet.
SEASON 2 |
08/04/2025Pierre-Etienne Franc is co-founder and chairman of FiveT Hydrogen, an investment platform dedicated to low-carbon hydrogen, and CEO of Hy24, the manager of the H2 Clean Infra Fund.
SEASON 2 |
25/03/2025Martin Pei, Executive Vice President and CTO of SSAB in Sweden. SSAB’s vision is a stronger, lighter and more sustainable world.
SEASON 2 |
11/03/2025Roberto Pancaldi, CEO of Tenova (part of the Techint Group) is the worldwide partner for the metals industry’s green transition from ENERGIRON DRI and electric arc furnace (EAF), reheating furnaces to cold rolling mills, processing lines and roll grinders.
SEASON 2 |
25/02/2025Electra is an exciting Swedish start-up decarbonising iron and steelmaking through an electrochemical, renewable-energy-powered process. Their vision is a stronger, lighter and more sustainable world.
SEASON 2 |
11/02/2025We speak with John Mellowes, Co-founder of BioCarbon, an Australian start-up that takes waste biomass resources such as woodchip and sawmill waste and coverts it to a range of biocarbon products
SEASON 2 |
28/01/2025The team speak with Stegra CTO, Maria Persson Gulda, who is responsible for the plant design, including the production of green hydrogen and selection of the associated equipment and technology.
SEASON 2 |
14/01/2025We are already halfway through Series 2 of The Green Steel Challenge. In this recap episode, Astrid, James and Mike discuss the issues and points taken from these first six episodes.
SEASON 2 |
10/12/2024We welcome Nicole Voigt, Managing Director and Partner at the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Nicole is a member of the leadership team of the Materials & Process Industries practice area and is global lead for metals.
SEASON 2 |
26/11/2024In this episode we welcome George Adams, CEO and President of SA recycling. With more than 140 locations, SA has the largest network of scrap metal facilities in the United States and is one, if not the world’s largest recyclers.
SEASON 2 |
12/11/2024We talk to Alan Dunsmore, CEO of Severfield Ltd, one of the largest steel fabricators in Europe, about what The Green Steel Challenge means to him and his market.
SEASON 2 |
29/10/2024The team speak to Tadeu Carneiro, CEO at Boston Metal. Boston Metal, based in Woburn, Massachusetts in the US and Minas Gerais in Brazil. Boston Metal is unlocking a future of sustainable metals and green steel production.
SEASON 2 |
15/10/2024We welcome Andrea Fuder, Executive Vice President of Volvo Group Trucks Purchasing & Chief Purchasing Officer for Volvo Group.
SEASON 2 |
01/10/2024Season 2 launches with Greg Murphy, General Counsel and Executive Vice President of Business Services & Sustainability at Nucor.
Coming Soon
- SEASON 3
Finale: Highlights & Reflections
- SEASON 4
Is green steel economically viable? Inside Saarstahl’s €4.6 billion bet with Stefan Rauber
LIVE EPISODES
SEASON 1 |
25/06/2024Relive the highlights, discover key insights and hear firsthand what we have learned and experienced. Plus get a sneak peak into the hot issues that will ignite debate in the upcoming season.
SEASON 1 |
11/06/2024Episode 14 features Thomas Hansmann, CTO of SMS Group, one of the major equipment suppliers to the global steel and metals industry.
SEASON 1 |
28/05/2024The world’s largest steel company outside of China, we speak with Irina Gorbounova VP M&A and Head of the ArcelorMittal XCarb Innovation Fund.
SEASON 1 |
14/05/2024We hear from Gunnar Groebler, CEO of Salzgitter Group. The Salzgitter Flachstahl integrated site is the European leader in converting from coal based blast furnace production to renewable powered EAF production based on H2 fuelled DRI as a raw material.
SEASON 1 |
30/04/2024In Episode 11 Mario Arvedi Caldonazzo, CEO of Italian based Arvedi Group talks about how about his group is unique within Europe in already being established as an EAF based flat products producer, like the mini mills of North America.
SEASON 1 |
16/04/2024In this episode Dr Anne-Marie Grossmann presents a clear and honest appraisal of what is happening in Germany which then has huge relevance to Europe and subsequently to other regions of the world.
SEASON 1 |
02/04/2024
SEASON 1 |
19/03/2024World Steel Dynamics has recently produced one of the first comprehensive reports on the likely pathways to decarbonizing for the steel industry and in this episode John describes and comments on the findings of the report.
SEASON 1 |
05/03/2024In episode 7, James, Mike and Astrid discuss and recap the first six episodes of The Green Steel Challenge Podcast.
SEASON 1 |
20/02/2024André Bier Gerdau Johannpeter is the Vice Chaiman of the Board of Directors and former CEO of Gerdau, the largest steel producer in South America as well as a major special steel producer in North America.
SEASON 1 |
06/02/2024In this episode we hear from Giacomo Mareschi Danieli, the CEO of Italy-based Danieli group, a key equipment supplier to the global steel industry as well as a steel producer.
SEASON 1 |
23/01/2024We hear from Sajjan Jindal, the Chairman & Managing Director of JSW Steel, one of the largest steel producers within what is now the most dynamic and exciting steel market in the world.
SEASON 1 |
09/01/2024Hybar is a new venture that aims to become the most cost-efficient and most environmentally sustainable rebar producer in North America. In 2023, Hybar raised $700 million to build a scrap metal recycling steel rebar mill.
SEASON 1 |
12/12/2023In the second episode, Astrid, Mike and James interview Stephen Montague, the CEO of Midrex Technologies, a globally renowned, US-based steel plant designer and developer specialised in Direct Reduction Iron (DRI) processes.
SEASON 1 |
27/11/2023In this first episode of the Green Steel Challenge Podcast, Astrid Korf-Wolman, alongside co-hosts Dr Mike Walsh and James Moss, warmly welcome Edwin Basson and Åsa Ekdahl from World Steel Association.
MEET THE HOSTS
AND MEET OUR GUEST SPEAKERS
THE STEEL INDUSTRY EXPERTS
Marcel Genet
- Founder
- Laplace Conseil
Marcel Genet, Founder of Laplace Conseil and formerly head of McKinsey’s worldwide steel practice.
Gareth Stace
- Director General
- UK Steel
Gareth Stace has been Director General of UK Steel since 2015, representing the sector to Government, Parliament, and the media.
Dave Burritt
- CEO
- US Steel
David B. Burritt was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of United States Steel Corporation in May 2017.
Peter Kinzel
- Vice President
- SMS Group
Peter Kinzel has a degree in chemical engineering and PhD in process engineering.
Stefano Buono
- Co-founder & CEO
- Newcleo
A nuclear physicist and successful entrepreneur, Stefano started his career working for 10 years with Nobel laureate Carlo Rubbia at CERN and CRS4.
Rogério Nogueira
- Director of Business & Product Development
- Vale
Rogério joined Vale in 2013 and has previously occupied the positions of Marketing & Strategic Planning Director and of Controller & Investor Relations Director.
Pete Johnson
- CEO
- Koloma
Koloma is focused on exploring and developing geologic (or “natural”) hydrogen as a new low-carbon energy source.
TV Narendran
- CEO & Managing DIrector
- Tata Steel
TV Narendran, CEO and Managing Director of Tata Steel, based in Mumbai in India. Tata is one of the world’s most respected steel companies.
John E. Lichtenstein
- Partner
- World Steel Dynamics
More than 30 years as an industry consulting practice leader and globally recognized trusted advisor to metals and mining industry
Andy Marsh
- CEO
- Plug Power
Andy Marsh has served as CEO of Plug, guiding the company’s transformation into a global leader in the hydrogen economy.
Alex Tancock
- CEO
- InterContinental Energy
Alex Tancock is the CEO of InterContinental Energy, a global leader in large-scale green hydrogen development.
Olivier Vassart
- CEO
- ArcelorMittal Steligence
Olivier Vassart has been working at ArcelorMittal since 2002 when he joined the R&D team in Luxembourg.