Healey visits Boston Metal in Woburn, pitches $1 billion Mass Leads Act to scale green-steel technology

WOBURN, Mass. — Governor Maura Healey and state and local leaders visited Boston Metal’s Woburn facility on Friday to spotlight the startup’s efforts to produce lower-emission steel and to press for the Mass Leads Act, a proposed $1 billion state initiative to bolster climate-technology companies.

"This is a truly revolutionary technology," Healey said, praising Boston Metal as an example of Massachusetts innovation that can help decarbonize steel production. She framed the visit as part of a broader push to keep climate-tech jobs and investments in the state.

Secretary of Economic Development Yvonne Hough said the company has raised "almost $300,000,000" to scale and cited outside recognition of the region’s climate-tech strength. "Our scientists coming out of our amazing universities ... make steel that is essentially ... 99% less emissions than traditional steel," Hough said, describing the potential emissions reductions that company representatives and visiting scientists discussed.

A Boston Metal representative thanked local officials and said the Woburn site supports "more than 150 families." The company described its process as capable of scaling to reduce the carbon footprint of steelmaking and of recovering value from mining waste, a claim the representative framed as an efficiency and sustainability advantage for the technology.

Healey and state economic-development officials tied the visit to the Mass Leads Act, a proposal the administration says will invest $1,000,000,000 in climate technology and related innovation to help firms like Boston Metal expand in Massachusetts rather than relocating to competing states. "Climate tech and climate innovation ... is our next big mission as a state," Healey said, adding that other states are also competing for clean-tech investments.

Officials placed the company and the technology in a larger context: steel is a global industry they described as worth about $1.6 trillion and responsible for roughly 8% of worldwide CO2 emissions, framing green-steel advances as important to both economic opportunity and emissions reductions.

Katie Ray of The Engine, an early investor, noted Boston Metal’s MIT roots and the role of university-industry partnerships in launching and scaling the firm. The visit concluded with officials offering to take questions and posing for a group photo.

The administration said the Mass Leads Act would support climate tech, life sciences and applied AI across regions of the state; specifics about program design, timelines for funding, and whether the proposal will pass the Legislature were not specified at the event.