On 19 March 2026, GIZ, Neuman & Esser Southeast Asia (NEA SEA), Thai Cold Rolled Steel Sheet plc (TCRSS), and Sahaviriya Steel Industries plc (SSI) jointly organised a cooperation agreement signing ceremony to officially launch a new public-private partnership (PPP) ‘Feasibility Study of Green Hydrogen for Decarbonising Steel Production in Thailand’ at SSI in Bang Saphan district, Prachuap Kirikhan province.
Thailand produces around 7-8 million tonnes of crude steel annually, making the steel industry one of the most carbon-intensive sectors. Although hydrogen is already used in steel production, manufacturers still rely predominantly on grey hydrogen derived from natural gas, resulting in high carbon emissions. This new PPP will evaluate the technical and economic feasibility of replacing grey hydrogen with green hydrogen in Thailand’s steel industry.
Representing the signing parties in the ceremony were: Tim Nees, H2Uppp Project Manager from GIZ Thailand; Ebberhard Friess, Sales Manager from NEA SEA; Somsak Pikkanesuan, Vice President Group Energy and Environment Technology Office from SSI; and Manop Yodeiam, Vice President of Manufacturing Division from TCRSS.
Following the signing ceremony, TCRSS presented overviews of their companies and roles in Thailand and Southeast Asia’s steel industry. Participants then visited TCRSS’s steelmaking facility to learn about the machinery, processes, and integration of green hydrogen in steel production.
As part of the partnership, NEA SEA experts and TCRSS engineers will work at the facility to gather data and evaluate the techno-economic feasibility of using green hydrogen for greener steel production. This event concluded with a technical roundtable, where project partners discussed key technical aspects and agreed on the next steps for the newly launched project.
Once the study is published, NEA SEA will conduct dissemination activities to ensure that the results are publicly available as part of broader efforts to promote the application of green hydrogen as a feedstock in the steel industry.
The International Hydrogen Ramp-up Programme (H2Uppp), a funding programme of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE) implemented by GIZ, supports green hydrogen projects and market development in the selected developing and emerging countries as a part of the German National Hydrogen Strategy. By fostering investment in projects and global scaling the green hydrogen markets through this initiative, BMWE helps meet future green hydrogen demand for Germany and Europe while enabling technology transfer and international cooperation in the global green hydrogen and PtX industry.
