Delivering the J. Keith Brimacombe Memorial and AIME Keynote Lecture to open AISTech 2026, Pinakin C. Chaubal said a raft of start-ups backed by venture capital and focused on alternative ironmaking have entered the steelmaking sector.

These companies have pedigrees entirely unrelated to steelmaking, he said, and are jumping in with unheard sums of money, by steel industry standards.

“For the first time that I can think of, we in the steel industry are talking about start-ups in terms of our own manufacturing. It is a very exciting time and a very unique time,” he said. 

Pinakin said that while these companies are accelerating the innovation cycle, they are also giving rise to new challenges.

“Those of us who have to look at integrating these technologies have to worry about: are these going to be industry reliable? How will we integrate them into existing plants? What will be the economics? We are not used to looking at (integrating start-ups) into our own processes,” he said. 

Pinakin also said consolidation within the steel industry is altering the innovation pathway.

“As consolidation has occurred in the steel industry…even first-of-a-kind (projects) are being considered as competitive advantages, and that’s making more and more difficult for companies to come together to actually move technology forward,” he said.

“This is a little bit of a backward move for the global industry,” he said. But then again, he added, it might not matter. 

“Perhaps by the fact that we have big conglomerates there will be opportunities to move forward without all the outside support,” he said.