Carlet Hoes from Tata Steel Europe talks about DataDrivenSteel

Started in 2016 as a technical trainee and now program manager DataDrivenSteel at Tata Steel Nederland: Carlet Hoes is one of the speakers at the FHI Energy in Industry event. Read a preview of what she will tell on June 20 here.

Green, clean and circular steel
Tata Steel has big plans to contribute to the energy transition the world is in. Hyper-aware of its own role in that change, the company is doing everything it can to get the transformation moving and keep it going. Carlet: “Our new strategy focuses on producing steel in a cleaner, greener and circular way. That won’t happen in one day, so we have made a complete plan for the long term.” 

That plan covers almost everything: from reducing the current footprint to using new energy sources in the future. Carlet explains: “In concrete terms, that means: we are replacing the old blast furnaces with new installations and using hydrogen to make liquid iron. A major step in making steel production more sustainable. With these new technologies, we no longer need coal. In this way, we are achieving a major reduction in CO2 in one fell swoop.”

A digital transformation is indispensable
No change without digitalisation – that is Carlet’s core message. As the person ultimately responsible for Tata Steel’s data-driven steel programme, she knows all about it. Carlet: “We are currently working on a CO2 transparency dashboard. It shows the CO2 emissions at product level. The first step in change is insight. From there, we look at which projects we need to implement to reduce those emissions.”

But other technologies also come into play in Carlet's daily work: “Making factories more efficient by using advanced analytics, process optimization of logistics, optimally setting factory ovens and predictive maintenance so that things are not replaced too early or too late: these are all examples of projects that we are already using to reduce our energy consumption.”

Making a big impact
With activities in no fewer than 26 countries – and offices in 35 countries – Tata Steel has a major impact. Carlet explains: “Even if we reduce our emissions by just 1 percent, that still has a huge impact on overall emissions. Tata Steel plays a major role in the energy transition, not only in the Netherlands, but throughout the world. If we are CO2 neutral as a steel company in 2045, we will set a great example for other steel companies to do the same.” That is called lead through inspiration.