SSAB to sell fossil-free steel to Vattenfall

Luleå Steel manufacturer SSAB and state-owned energy company Vattenfall have signed a letter of intent to supply fossil-free steel made from sponge iron produced with the Hybrit technology at the pilot plant in Luleå.

SSAB and Vattenfall are already working together with the mining company LKAB on the Hybrit project, where iron ore pellets are directly reduced to sponge iron using electricity and hydrogen. Now the cooperation is increasing as Vattenfall also buys the fossil-free products SSAB produces with input materials from the pilot plant in Luleå.

Deliveries will begin next year. Vattenfall sees several possible areas of use, such as power line poles, hydroelectric dams, grid stations, anchoring structures for land-based wind power and parts of foundations for offshore wind power.

"It feels incredibly good that Vattenfall, with whom we have a successful collaboration regarding HYBRIT, will now use fossil-free steel in their products and work with subcontractors who do so too. It shows what we can achieve when we work together and is completely in line with our goal of not only reducing our own emissions but also contributing to reducing the carbon footprint in other parts of the value chain,” says Christina Friborg, Head of Sustainability, SSAB.

Since 2016, Vattenfall, together with SSAB and LKAB, owns the technology development company Hybrit Development AB, which develops technical solutions for a fossil-free value chain for the production of fossil-free steel.

“It is very positive that Vattenfall has managed to secure some of the first deliveries, despite high demand. We are now closing the circle in the HYBRIT collaboration as we take the step toward using fossil-free steel in our operations. We are working determinedly for fossil freedom and our goal is to have net zero emissions in our entire value chain by 2040. Electrifying society demands a great deal more steel and, in the long term, many suppliers, and Vattenfall needs the fossil-free steel to reach our ambitious goals,” says Annika Ramsköld, Head of Sustainability, Vattenfall.

Vattenfall and SSAB will also collaborate on sustainability calculations and the LCA (life cycle assessment) method of carbon emission calculations to secure the entire fossil-free value chain.

Lennart Håkansson

editor@northswedenbusiness.com