SUNCOKE ENERGY INC. DL-01
Commented by Nico Popp on February 2nd, 2026 | 07:25 CET
Energy from waste, as at Verbio: CHAR Technologies as the savior of the steel industry – competition for market leader SunCoke Energy
The steel industry is facing a severe test that is often glossed over in ESG reports. While politicians, the media, and futurologists dream of green hydrogen, this vision collides with harsh reality: steel, the basic material of our modern civilization, cannot be produced in existing plants without solid carbon. It serves not only as an energy source, but also as a chemical reducing agent to extract oxygen from iron ore and as a support structure in the furnace. Against this backdrop, it becomes clear that decarbonization cannot be achieved by completely eliminating carbon, but only by replacing its fossil origin. In this billion-dollar market, the Canadian company CHAR Technologies is positioning itself as a key problem solver. While the established market leader SunCoke Energy still relies on fossil coal and is increasingly under margin pressure, CHAR's biochar is an immediately available, climate-neutral solution. At the same time, Verbio's success in Europe shows that scaling up waste materials to energy works – a logic that CHAR is now applying to the steel sector.
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