Cost Assessment of Steel Technologies (CAST)

CAST is a bottom-up techno-economic model for estimating itemized production costs of iron and steelmaking technologies. It covers the main production processes, from ironmaking (blast furnace, direct reduction of iron, and electric smelting furnace) to steelmaking (basic oxygen furnace and electric arc furnace). The tool also allows users to quantify the cost of steelmaking using a blend of hot metal, direct reduced iron, and scrap.

CAST supports scenario analysis across a wide range of financial, commodity price, and policy assumptions. Default data are provided for three countries — China, Germany, and Japan — and users can adjust key assumptions, such as capital investment by technology, energy prices, raw material costs, carbon pricing, and technology choice, to see how cost structures, cost differences, and emissions intensities respond in real time. The tool is intended to support research, policy analysis, and stakeholder engagement on steel sector decarbonization pathways.