SSAB and UK’s Firth Steel in deal for SSAB Zero steel deliveries

Swedish steelmaker SSAB and Firth Steels have entered a long-term partnership for the supply of SSAB’s Zero, a product made of recycled steel and produced with fossil-free electricity and biogas.

The partnership will help Firth Steels, one of the UK main manufacturers of steel profile products for wall and roof systems, to further improve its sustainability and reduce the CO2 footprint of its products.

The steel from SSAB will be used as a key component of Firth Steels’ brand-new product series Protex Voyage, a low embodied carbon building envelope solution.

“As a UK-based roll-former of steel profiles, Scope 3 emissions represent the largest portion of our carbon footprint,” James Firth, Managing Director of Firth Steels Limited said.

“By forming strategic partnerships with the world’s leading mills, we can significantly reduce these emissions and forge a sustainable future for our planet from the outset, not offset,” Firth said.

“We are happy to add fossil-free steel to our collaboration with Firth Steels, which already uses our bio-based GreenCoat color coated steel in their products,” Dave Williams, Managing Director, SSAB Swedish Steel Ltd, said.

“By cutting our own carbon emissions, we can help our customers reduce their indirect emissions from the materials they use — it is a win-win,” Williams said.

Many companies in different industries across the steel value chain are buying increasing volumes of low-carbon and low-stainless “green” steel to reduce their Scope 2 and 3 emissions, closing supply agreements to secure low-emission steel for their products.

Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed Northwest European hot-rolled carbon-accounted coil at Eur760/mt ($815/mt) ex-works Ruhr on June 17, up Eur5/mt on the day.

The assessment was in line with the sum of Platts daily carbon-accounted steel premium assessment and Platts daily hot-rolled coil price assessment in Northwest Europe.

On June 18, SSAB also said its near- and long-term carbon emissions reduction targets have been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative.

Approval means the targets are scientifically based and in line with the SBTi’s raised requirements for companies to deliver on the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 C.

SSAB’s now validated long-term target is to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions for Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 by 2045. The updated near-term target is a reduction of 48% in greenhouse gas emissions in Scope 1, Scope 2 and parts of Scope 3 by 2033 compared with 2018 as the base year, the company said.

It is a raised ambition compared with SSAB’s previously validated near-term target of a 35% reduction in Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 2032 compared with 2018.

With this approval SSAB is one of the first steel companies globally to receive validated decarbonization targets according to the SBTi’s steel sector guidance released in 2023.

Annalisa Villa