SSAB delays Swedish mill startup by one year due to grid challenges

The project’s price tag remains at 4.5 billion euros (USD$5.17 billion), SSAB said.

The plan is to decommission the blast furnace-based production system with a mini-mill with electric-arc furnaces. The mini-mill is expected to run on fossil-free electricity and be supplied with a mix of fossil-free sponge iron produced with the HYBRIT technology (hydrogen reduction of iron ore) and recycled scrap as the raw material.

Svenska kraftnät, which manages the power grid, is working to increase capacity on the transmission grid. This work includes building a new station from which Vattenfall will connect SSAB’s mill. It also means the existing main grid station that supplies that new station will need to be modernized, SSAB said.

Vattenfall said Svenska kraftnät is facing technical challenges related to outage planning in the existing grid.

“In order ensure continued operational reliability in the power grid, it has therefore been decided to adjust the timeline for SSAB’s connection, which will impact the start-up of SSAB’s new steel mill in Lulea,” SSAB said in a press release.