Growing global concern over greenhouse gas emissions has intensified the need to decarbonise the iron and steel industry, a major contributor to global CO2 emissions (7–9 per cent) (Brooks et al, 2024). However, current steelmaking pathways, particularly the traditional blast furnace and basic oxygen furnace route, which accounts for more than 72 per cent of global steel production, remain a major challenge due to their heavy reliance on metallurgical coke. Consequently, significant research efforts are underway to decarbonise the industry. Among emerging technologies, the electric smelting furnace (ESF) offers a promising low-emission pathway that can be deployed at large scale within a short time frame. The potential for emission reduction increases further as hydrogen becomes economically viable for direct reduced iron production. A key advantage of the ESF is its flexible implementation, as it can be integrated with BOF and EAF or retrofitted into existing steelmaking facilities. Moreover, ESF enables the processing of DRI derived from low- to medium-grade iron ores.