SSAB seeks environmental permit for new steel plant

The application is for permission to convert the existing operations in Luleå to fossil-free steel production.

SSAB wants to dismantle the blast furnace, the coking plant and the current steel plant. Instead, the company wants to build a new integrated electric steel plant with electric arc furnaces, hot rolling and further processing. A plant called mini-mill. The electric steel plant will run on fossil-free electricity and use fossil-free sponge iron and recycled scrap as raw materials.

“This application is yet another step on our fossil-free journey. Our transformation in Luleå will result in less air and water emissions. The faster we obtain permits for our transformation, the greater the environmental gain,” says Sara Arvidson, who is responsible for the permits at SSAB’s transformation office.

SSAB hopes to have a permit in place within a year. The goal of the transition is to change production by 2030, by which time carbon dioxide emissions from the operations in Luleå will be reduced by 90 percent, or 2.8 million tons each year. In total, SSAB's transition will reduce Sweden's carbon emissions by 10 percent, more than half of which will come from Luleå. SSAB's operations in Finland will reduce Finland's carbon emissions by 7 percent.

Another important step in SSAB's transition was taken this week with the start of construction of an electric arc furnace at the Oxelösund plant in southern Sweden. It will produce fossil-free steel using electricity and steel scrap as inputs, an investment of SEK 6.2 billion.

SSAB has production facilities in Sweden, Finland and the US, and is listed on the Stockholm and Helsinki stock exchanges.

Lennart Håkansson

editor@northswedenbusiness.com