Sweden builds dam gate using fossil-free steel
Vattenfall will engineer a dam gate for the Stornorrfors hydroelectric power plant outside Umeå in north-eastern Sweden, which will be made from steel developed as part of the HYBRIT joint venture, Kallanish learns.
The object will weigh 120 tonnes, be 21 metres high and 10m wide. It is used to regulate the water flow at hydroelectric power plants. The goal is for it to be installed in 2028 and become operational in 2029.
“The construction itself is, of course, extensive, but the logistics and installation will also require a lot of planning. With components this large, for example, special transport will probably be required,” says Stefan Tyrbo, Vattenfall’s project manager for the project.
Dam gates have a service life of over 70 years, making their replacement a fairly rare occurrence.
Author: Christian Koehl Germany
Tata Nederland opens packaging steel production line
Tata Steel Nederland has commissioned a new production line for packaging steel, the company informs Kallanish.
The line builds on Tata’s proprietary TCCT technology (Trivalent Chromium Coating Technology) for packaging steel that is more sustainable and already complies with future legislation, the Dutch steelmaker says.
Tata Nederland notes it is the exclusive developer of this technology, and holds the patent. It also licenses TCCT technology to other steel producers. On the new line, TCCT is combined with another proprietary technology of Tata Nederland, Protact (polymer-coated packaging steel), a coating which uses no lacquers, and has a chromium VI-free substrate which is compliant with forthcoming European REACH legislation.
Combined with Protact, TSN meets the strictest food safety standards and simplifies the customer’s production process, because no extra lacquer layer is needed, the company explains. This means lower costs, fewer chemicals, and a shorter supply chain, it notes.
In the Netherlands, more than 95% of packaging steel is recycled into new steel.
European stainless industry navigates new world order: SSN
A systemic change in the world order has created new challenges for European stainless steel companies and forced them to rethink the way they do business. The focus now is on defending profitability rather than sales or production growth, says Andrzej Michalski-Stepkowski, chairman of Poland’s Stowarzyszenie Stal Nierdzewna (Stainless Steel Association – SSN).
Europe has gone from producing 17% of the world’s crude steel stainless steel in 2014 to less than 10% in 2025, with Asia leading stainless output growth. However, Poland is one of the EU’s largest stainless consumers, representing 10% of the market with apparent demand of 490,000 tonnes in 2025.
While globalisation saw the movement of low-cost produciton to the East, innovation has since also moved in that direction, and Asia is now selling specialised products to the West, Michalski-Stepkowski noted at Thursday’s Stainless Steel Forum in Chorzow. The EU has meanwhile lost competitiveness amid high energy and labour costs, as well as heavy regulation.
Global overcapacity of various commodities has resulted in geopolitical unrest, the dissolution of alliances, break-up of supply chains, trade wars, and the resulting threat to EU industry.
AI is meanwhile revolutionising the way business is done. The US is investing heavily into data centres, which will require significant energy supply, some of it from nuclear plants, which presents a strong opportunity for stainless suppliers.
In response to these challenges, EU policymakers have become more pragmatic concerning once heavily punitive climate regulation. “Today, no EU politician in Brussels wants to admit that they once supported the Green Deal,” Michalski-Stepkowski asserted at the event attended by Kallanish. The policy was “ill-conceived”, he added.
EU policymakers acknowledged there was something wrong in 2024 and commissioned Mario Draghi to produce his now widely-lauded report, on the basis of which various EU policy initiatives have been established. These include the Clean Industrial Deal and Steel and Metals Action Plan.
“There was a period when I thought we [European industry] would become a museum and China would take over,” Michalski-Stepkowski noted. “Today, I am more optimistic because … I see things are happening.” Business will continue but in a different way, with strategies adapted to maximise margins using the resources at Europe’s disposal. The use of AI and cost optimisation will feature. Growth will return, but not based on capacities or sales, but on profit, he concluded.