On average, U.S. steel production is among the least carbon-intensive in the world. This is primarily the result of the type of production process the industry employs. Nearly half of all steel in the United States is made in “mini mills,” which use electricity to recycle scrap steel rather than starting from scratch by burning coal and coke to melt iron ore into iron. The electric arc furnaces employed by the mini mills emit one-fourth the amount of CO2 per ton of steel as the blast furnaces and basic oxygen furnaces used in integrated mills if only direct emissions from the factory are counted. If one includes the CO2 emitted to produce the electricity an electric arc furnace consumes, the embedded carbon increases (though still less than that from an integrated mill, especially if that electricity is generated from low-carbon fuel sources).