What was the source and quality of upstream inventories?
As an LCI is a cradle-to-gate study, the database includes upstream data (that is, iron ore mining, electricity production, etc.). Iron ore mining & pellet-making data was received directly from operations around the world; a disappointing response to the request for LCI data from coal and electricity producers meant that these were obtained mainly from commercial databases and literature sources, but the quality and transparency of methods to derive these data are less well defined than the steel industry specific data in terms of reliability, geographical relevance, methodology and completeness. In order to avoid potential data quality problems arising from this, certain steel sites acquired data directly from representative sites for the upstream processes not mentioned above that were judged to have a significant contribution to the global LCI results (for example, limestone quarrying, lime production and sea transport). The inventory includes: – All non-mass inputs (including elec
