A New Standard ESG Questionnaire for the Steel Industry

ESG due diligence has moved to the centre of supplier onboarding in the steel industry. Buyers increasingly require structured, documented information on compliance, labour rights, environmental impact, and supply chain risk. For suppliers, this often means responding to similar ESG questionnaires from multiple customers, frequently in slightly different formats.

Metalshub has worked closely with stakeholders across the European steel industry to address this challenge. The result is a standardised ESG Questionnaire, now available on the Metalshub platform for suppliers.

The purpose of the Metalshub ESG Questionnaire is to create a single, robust ESG standard that suppliers can complete once and reuse across customer relationships.

The questionnaire goes one step beyond basic KYC and background checks. It is designed to support supplier onboarding, ESG risk assessment, and compliance reviews in a structured and auditable way. Buyers gain reliable, comparable information. Suppliers gain clarity and efficiency.

This approach reflects direct feedback from steel producers, processors, and traders across the EU. The industry needs consistency, efficiency, and a shared framework for ESG information.

The ESG Questionnaire focuses on the topics that matter most in iron and steel supply chains, including:

• Legal and regulatory compliance
• Ethical business conduct and anti-corruption
• Labour rights, health and safety, and human rights
• Environmental impact, energy efficiency, and waste management
• Responsible supply chain practices, including REACH and conflict-free sourcing
• Risk management, business continuity, and disaster recovery
• Management systems (ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO 9001)
• Financial transparency

The structure reflects real buyer requirements and current regulatory expectations in the steel industry.

For suppliers, the ESG Questionnaire reduces repetitive administrative work. Many suppliers receive multiple ESG questionnaires from different customers that ask for the same information in different formats. Completing a single standard questionnaire on Metalshub creates one structured source of truth that can be maintained and reused across customer relationships.

The benefit extends to buyers, as well. Standardised ESG information improves comparability across suppliers, supports faster compliance reviews, and accelerates onboarding processes that can otherwise take up to six months. Structured answers also strengthen audit readiness and internal governance workflows.

Time savings is the shared advantage. A common questionnaire reduces friction in qualification and onboarding, while raising the quality and consistency of ESG information exchanged across the steel supply chain.

ESG expectations increasingly shape how suppliers are evaluated and onboarded across the steel value chain. Buyers require structured, reliable information for compliance, risk management, and reporting, while suppliers need an efficient way to provide that information without repeating the same work for multiple customers.

A shared ESG questionnaire helps reduce administrative workload across the industry. Suppliers are often asked to fill in numerous similar forms for different customers. Completing one standard questionnaire on Metalshub creates a single, reusable source of ESG information instead of responding to multiple separate requests.

Standardisation also increases the speed of supplier onboarding. Qualification processes can extend for several months when ESG information must be collected, validated, and reformatted repeatedly. A common framework streamlines this process, improves comparability of data, and supports faster, more transparent collaboration between buyers and suppliers.

By making this questionnaire available to suppliers, Metalshub contributes to establishing a practical industry standard for sustainability and ESG due diligence across the European steel sector.

Available Now on Metalshub

Suppliers can now complete the ESG Questionnaire directly on the Metalshub platform and use it across customer relationships. Strengthen your compliance positioning, reduce repetitive administrative work, and accelerate onboarding with a recognised industry framework.

For more information, contact us, and our Customer Success team will be happy to support you.