EMSTEEL Group (EMSTEEL), one of the region’s largest publicly traded integrated steel and building materials manufacturers, has announced key updates with the Emirates Nuclear Energy Company (ENEC) to decarbonise steel production by sourcing clean, nuclear-generated electricity certified under Abu Dhabi’s Clean Energy Certificates Program (I-REC Standard), managed by Emirates Water & Electricity Company (EWEC).
The Clean Energy Certificates Program demonstrates how nuclear energy is enabling clean manufacturing and strengthening the UAE’s position as a global leader in sustainable industrial growth, advancing TrueGreen, EMSTEEL’s strategic sustainability identity that unifies its decades of decarbonisation initiatives.
This progress builds on a decade-long partnership between EMSTEEL and ENEC. During the construction of the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant, the first multi-unit operational nuclear energy plant in the MENA region, EMSTEEL supplied 160,000 tonnes of nuclear-grade rebar, meeting 60 per cent of the project’s total rebar requirements.
The purchase of the nuclear generated Clean Energy Certificates enables EMSTEEL to access low-carbon electricity, thereby directly lowering Scope 2 emissions and reducing the overall carbon footprint of steel produced in the UAE. It also positions EMSTEEL as the first regional steelmaker to utilise Clean Energy Certificates from nuclear energy, highlighting innovation and accountability across one of the world’s hardest-to-abate sectors.
EMSTEEL has integrated 86 per cent clean electricity across its steel operations, and 14 per cent across its cement production, including 1,484,067 megawatt-hours from nuclear power and 651,594 megawatt-hours from solar certificates combined for both its steel and cement operations. EMSTEEL aims to reach 100 per cent clean electricity by 2030 in line with its long-term decarbonisation roadmap.
Eng Saeed Ghumran Al Remeithi, Group CEO of EMSTEEL, said: “Clean energy, technology enablement, and verified data are central to credible industrial decarbonisation. Through TrueGreen, we are integrating these principles into every aspect of our operations. This synergy with ENEC strengthens our clean energy portfolio and supports our long-term strategy to scale low-carbon steel production. It reflects how national partnerships can accelerate industrial transformation and position the UAE as a global leader in sustainable manufacturing.”
His Excellency Mohamed Al Hammadi, Managing Director and Group Chief Executive Officer of ENEC, said: “Pairing ENEC’s carbon-free baseload electricity with EMSTEEL’s continuous industrial load demand shows what the energy transition looks like in practice: clean power at industrial scale, delivered with traceable certificates while in parallel ensuring grid reliability. This collaboration turns a decade of partnership into a repeatable model for hard-to-abate sectors, lowering Scope 2 emissions today while strengthening competitiveness and supply-chain certainty. As demand from AI, electrification, and industry grow, Barakah’s proven performance gives the UAE a platform to decouple growth from emissions and to export proven solutions to generate abundant clean electricity at scale to a highly efficient timeline.”
The agreement highlights how cross-sector partnerships are driving the UAE’s industrial transformation. EMSTEEL is setting a regional benchmark for low-carbon steelmaking and demonstrating how energy transition and industrial competitiveness can advance together in support of the UAE’s Net Zero 2050 Strategy.
The Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant, owned and developed by ENEC, produces around 40 TWh annually, supplying up to 25 per cent of the UAE’s total electricity demand and avoiding approximately 22.4 million tons of carbon emissions each year. Each unit of the Barakah Plant was delivered to global standards on an average of 7.9 years per unit, setting a new benchmark for civil nuclear energy deployment globally.
With at least 60 years of operations ahead, Barakah demonstrates how nuclear energy can significantly enhance national energy security and sustainability, boosting available power levels for industrial growth while creating a stronger, more resilient grid.
