Steel Mills
SSAB Touts World's First Fossil-Free Steel Delivery
Written by Michael Cowden
August 19, 2021
Swedish steelmaker SSAB said it has produced the world’s first-fossil free steel and delivered a trial order to automaker Volvo.
“It’s possible to … significantly reduce the global carbon footprint of the steel industry. We hope that this will inspire others to also want to speed up the green transition,” SSAB President and CEO Martin Lindqvist said in a statement.
SSAB made the steel using the hydrogen-based HYBRIT technology it has developed in conjunction with Swedish iron ore miner LKAB and Swedish power company Vattenfall. The partners commissioned a pilot hydrogen-based direct-reduced iron (DRI) plant in Luleå, in northern Sweden, in August 2020.
The goal is to charge hydrogen-based DRI into an electric-arc furnace (EAF) to make fossil-free steel at an industrial scale by 2026.
“It’s a crucial milestone and an important step towards creating a completely fossil-free value chain from mine to finished steel,” LKAB President and CEO Jan Moström said.
SSAB rolled the trial fossil-free steel at its steel mill in Oxelösund, Sweden. The mill, an integrated facility, is slated to switch to EAF production as soon as 2025, the company said.
Switching to EAF production means the carbon-intensive coking coal process is no longer necessary. And DRI produced via hydrogen results in H2O (water) emissions instead of CO2 emissions.
Steel is a major contributor to higher global carbon emissions. SSAB thinks the switch to hydrogen steelmaking in Sweden and Finland, where its integrated mills are located, could reduce carbon emissions in those countries by 10% and 7%, respectively.
SSAB Americas, a subsidiary of the Swedish steelmaker, operates EAF plate mills in Iowa and in Alabama.
SSAB Americas President Chuck Schmitt told SMU earlier this summer that the company intends to make its first trial of fossil-free steel in the U.S. in early 2022.
By Michael Cowden, Michael@SteelMarketUpdate.com
Michael Cowden
Read more from Michael CowdenLatest in Steel Mills
Nucor shuttering Chicago tubular facility
Nucor is closing its Nucor Tubular Products Chicago facility and will be laying off 47 workers.
Algoma foresees narrow profit (or loss) in fiscal Q2’25
Canadian flat-rolled steelmaker Algoma predicts that it will be roughly breakeven on an adjusted EBITDA basis in the second quarter of its fiscal year. The Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario-based company expects adjusted EBIDTA in a range from a gain of $5 million CAD ($3.7 million USD) to a loss of $5 million CAD in fiscal Q2'25.
Arbitration board sides with USS over USW on Nippon deal
A board of arbitration has ruled in favor of U.S Steel vs. the United Steelworkers (USW) union in a dispute regarding Nippon Steel’s more than $14-billion proposed deal for the Pittsburgh-based steelmaker.
USS first to get nod to sell ‘ResponsibleSteel’ items at Big River
U.S. Steel is the first steelmaker in the world qualified to sell its products as “ResponsibleSteel Certified Steel” at its Big River Steel operation in Osceola, Ark.
USS: No production impact from Midwest Plant fire
A transformer caught fire at U.S. Steel’s Midwest Plant in Portage, Ind., on Sunday.