The quick history of H2 Green Steel
The main owner is Swedish financier Harald Mix through his company Vargas. Henrik Henriksson, then CEO of truck manufacturer Scania, was recruited as CEO.
The same year, the company raised its first capital of SEK 1 billion. Investors included the Wallenberg and Agnelli financial families and the Mercedes-Benz automotive group. Well-known Swedish investors such as Kinnevik's Cristina Stenbeck and Spotify's Daniel Ek were also involved.
In the summer of 2022, the company was granted a so-called construction licence, which meant that groundwork could begin before all environmental permits were in place, which they were a year later. At the same time, H2 Green Steel secured a number of multi-year customer contracts.
In terms of electricity supply, it has secured electricity supplies from Norwegian Statkraft and Finnish Fortum, which will cover the company's electricity needs in the first phase. However, the Swedish state-owned electricity supplier Vattenfall has refused to supply the electricity needed when H2 Green Steel phases up to full production. At the same time Vattenfall has given competitor SSAB a power allocation for its plans for fossil-free steel production.
Now, in early 2024, private financing of the entire steel plant construction has been secured, with capital and loans totalling SEK 75 billion, and binding customer agreements worth a total of SEK 130 billion. In two years, in March 2026, production in Svartbyn outside Boden will start.
What has not gone the company's way are deliveries of iron ore. It had hoped to buy iron ore from the state-owned mining company LKAB, which has several mines in Norrbotten. But negotiations with LKAB have so far not gone well. LKAB does not want to deliver, citing the poor capacity of the Malmbanan railway line.
The lack of capacity and maintenance of the Malmbanan railway has led to several train derailments this winter and long traffic stops on the Malmbanan. Improvements to Malmbanan will now be prioritised in the national transport plan.
Lennart Håkansson
editor@northswedenbusiness.com
