releases/2025/10/bhp-and-posco-partner-to-advance-hydrogen-based-ironmaking-technology">bhp.com) that the work would centre on trials at POSCO’s planned 300,000-tonne-a-year demonstration plant, while specialist publication Hydrogen Insight (
hydrogeninsight.com) cast the latest deal as part of the wider race to decarbonise primary steelmaking.
The immediate step was a co-operation agreement signed on 3 September at Cheongsongdae in Pohang, which POSCO said will let it test how HyREX performs under differing raw-material conditions using ore supplied by BHP. POSCO added (newsroom.posco.com) that the programme will examine whether the process remains stable with real-world feedstocks, how ore quality changes plant performance and which blends are best suited to the route. A Yonhap dispatch republished by Financial News described the pact in similar terms, stressing that it is a validation exercise for POSCO’s proprietary process rather than a simple supply arrangement. (fnnews.com)
That distinction matters because the technical hurdle is not merely replacing one supplier with another. In BHP’s description (bhp.com), HyREX combines hydrogen-based direct reduced iron production in fluidised-bed reactors with an electric smelting furnace that melts the reduced iron. Primetals, which signed its own HyREX co-operation agreement with POSCO in 2024, says (primetals.com) the design is meant to use fine ore directly, avoiding pelletising and the coke-making chain associated with conventional blast-furnace production. Primetals also says the technology can take sinter feed and is suitable for more than half of globally available iron ore grades, which helps explain why proving up BHP’s Pilbara ore is strategically important for both companies. (primetals.com)
The agreement signed this week is the follow-through to an earlier accord. BHP said on 30 October 2025 (bhp.com) that it had signed a memorandum of understanding with POSCO to advance what it called “near zero emissions” ironmaking, and Seoul Economic Daily reported (en.sedaily.com) that the Korean side views the 3 September 2026 contract as the next step after that MoU, which was signed in the presence of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and POSCO chairman Chang In-hwa. In the same BHP release, chief commercial officer Rag Udd called the collaboration “another important step towards decarbonising the steel industry”, while POSCO’s Myungjong Cho said the miner’s involvement should “fast-track HyREX’s journey to commercial operation”. (bhp.com)
The project’s timetable also shows why the ore tests are more than a symbolic gesture. BHP said last year (bhp.com) that commissioning of the Pohang demonstration facility was being targeted for calendar 2028. POSCO’s current ESG materials state (sustainability.posco.co.kr) that the 300,000-tonne demonstration plant was due to break ground in April 2026 and complete in 2028, with trial operations continuing through 2030 as the company seeks the operating conditions needed for full commercial deployment. The same disclosure says HyREX was designated a national strategic technology in January 2024, and that the group ultimately wants to use it as a core part of a phased path to carbon neutrality by 2050. (sustainability.posco.co.kr)
South Korean business media have therefore treated the BHP tie-up as a commercialisation milestone, not a ceremonial extension of an existing relationship. Korea Economic Daily wrote (hankyung.com) that the move marks the start of commercialisation work on hydrogen reduction steelmaking, and Newsis said (newsis.com) it should reinforce the basis for bringing decarbonised steel technology into use. Newsis also pointed back to POSCO’s earlier opening of a hydrogen reduction ironmaking development centre, underlining that the supplier agreement sits on top of engineering and research work already under way in Pohang. (newsis.com)
The cast of executives involved suggests both companies are treating the matter as a supply-chain and technology problem at the same time. Seoul Economic Daily identified those present at the signing as Bae Jin-chan, head of POSCO’s HyREX promotion team, Ben Ellis, BHP’s chief marketing and sustainability officer, Eom Kyung-keun, head of POSCO Technical Research Laboratories, and Stuart Feathers, BHP’s general manager of technology planning and environment. (en.sedaily.com) POSCO says (newsroom.posco.com) the partners will also share know-how on raw materials for hydrogen ironmaking and look for ways to reduce Scope 3 emissions arising in the upstream supply chain.
BHP, for its part, has made clear that it wants decarbonisation routes that still work with Australian ore. In its 2025 statement, the miner said (bhp.com) it sees its role as helping customers cut emissions while enabling Australian iron ore to remain usable “for decades to come”. That goes to the heart of this week’s agreement: if POSCO can show that HyREX runs reliably on BHP ore, the company will have done more than sign another decarbonisation pact. It will have answered one of the central industrial questions facing hydrogen-based steelmaking, namely whether a lower-emissions route can be built around ore types and supply chains that the market already has.
Source: Noah Wire Services
