“However, we have to invest in green technologies, to be pioneers, and most of our customers agree that we must lower CO2 emissions,” he noted at the EUROMETAL regional meeting Nordics in Copenhagen last week attended by Kallanish.
“We have calculated that we will have to pay between SEK 7-8 billion [$636-727 million] by 2030 for gas emissions, if we continue to produce with the old technology. So, one way or the other, you will have to pay more for your steel, Thus, the producers, together with the customers, have to face this new reality,” he added.
According to him, the mechanical properties of steel are created in the downstream processes and will be the same as they are today. “The only difference is using fossil-free fuels, like hydrogen and electricity. We calculated that at SSAB, fossil–free iron and steel production will require 15 TWh of electricity per year. That corresponds to 9% of Sweden’s electricity generation in 2019,” Meier noted.
The firm’s plan is to reach commercial output of 1.3 million tonnes/year of fossil-free hot-briquetted iron in 2026 after delivering the first green steel to Volvo in 2021, he concluded.
Svetoslav Abrossimov Bulgaria
