Steel is one of the most widely used construction materials worldwide due to its exceptional durability, ease of fabrication, and cost-effectiveness, with applications spanning manufacturing, transportation, infrastructure, and agriculture. Global production of crude steel reached about 1.88 billion tonnes (Bt) in 2024. Steelmaking continues to be one of the most carbon-intensive industrial sectors, accounting for nearly 7–9 per cent of global CO2 emissions, second only to cement production, despite its essential role in modern society (Shahabuddin, Brooks and Rhamdhani, 2022). The primary cause of this high carbon footprint is the predominance of the conventional coal coke-based blast furnace–basic oxygen furnace (BF–BOF) route, which currently produces about 73 per cent of the world’s steel and emits about 2 t of CO2 per tonne of steel produced (Shahabuddin, Brooks and Rhamdhani, 2022). To reach global net-zero emission goals, we need to switch to low-carbon steelmaking technologies. The hydrogen-based direct reduced iron (H2-DRI) route, combined with an electric smelting furnace (ESF), has received a lot of attention as a possible way to reduce carbon emissions, especially for processing low-grade iron ores. This integrated approach significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions by substituting hydrogen for carbon as the primary reducing agent and using renewable electricity for melting. Furthermore, the ESF route offers considerable operational flexibility, enabling the use of a range of feedstocks, such as DRI, hot briquetted iron (HBI), and fine iron-bearing residues. Additionally, the process improves material circularity and overall resource efficiency by producing value-added slags appropriate for cement applications.