Australia risks losing its dominant position in the global iron ore market if it does not move swiftly to produce green iron, and would do well to learn lessons from the near wipe-out of its nickel industry, Fortescue CEO Dino Otranto said on Tuesday.

Australia is the world’s biggest supplier of seaborne iron ore, accounting for around half of global supply. But the Pilbara grades dug up from the country’s west are generally regarded as too low to be turned into steel without using coal.

That means as steel makers decarbonise, they are turning elsewhere for iron ore, which could hit Australia’s top export earner, Otranto said at the IMARC conference in Sydney.

“The message is, take the opportunity,” he said on the sidelines of the conference. “We have an abundance of solar and wind… so the logical next step is to get into downstream industries.”

Competition is growing from new green steel projects – made without the use of fossil fuels – in the Middle East, while Guinea’s giant Simandou iron ore mine is set to start up next year, he said.