SSAB Europe head Olavi Huhtala to retire
Olavi Huhtala, Head of SSAB Europe, has announced that he will retire during winter 2025. A recruitment process to find his successor will now begin.
Olavi Huhtala has been head of SSAB Europe and a member of SSAB’s Group Executive Committee since 2014.
He has been employed by the company since 1987, starting at Rautaruukki which combined with SSAB in 2014. He has held several leading positions including as Executive Vice President and head of Ruukki Metals.
“I have had amazing years at SSAB and the benefit of working together with engaged and competent colleagues,” says Olavi Huhtala. “Together we have built a modern company with a better product mix and improved safety. I am proud of having contributed to important events such as the combination of SSAB and Rautaruukki and in recent years the transition toward fossil-free steelmaking. Now it’s time for me to do something else in life and manage my own time.”
“I want to thank Olavi for his contributions to SSAB,” says President and CEO Martin Lindqvist. “As head of one division, he has played a significant role in developing SSAB into the great company it is today with improved profitability and a leading position in the green transition.”
Olavi Huhtala will remain in his role as head of SSAB Europe until the end of January 2025, after which he will remain as an advisor.
SSAB appoints Johnny Sjöström new chief executive
Johnny Sjöström, currently head of the SSAB Special Steels division, has been appointed president and chief executive of SSAB, Kallanish learns.
He will start in his new position on 28 October, succeeding Martin Lindqvist who previously announced he is leaving the company for a board career. Sjöström has been head of SSAB Special Steels since 2019. In that role, he has worked to develop and grow the company’s business for special steels and overseen the green transformation of SSAB’s steelworks in Oxelösund. He was formerly ceo of Uddeholm and held different management positions at Outokumpu Stainless Oy.
Sjöström “has solid technical knowledge and extensive experience within the industry in the Nordic region and internationally,” says Lennart Evrell, SSAB chairman. “With his background and experience, he is the right person to lead SSAB forward.”
Lindqvist will remain president and ceo until 27 October.
Christian Koehl Germany
Hybrit initiative presents final report
Sweden’s Hybrit initiative will present the results of six years of research into fossil-free direct reduced iron-making technology in a final report to the Swedish Energy Agency, Kallanish learns from SSAB, a partner in the project.
Hybrit is a collaboration between SSAB, mining company LKAB and energy company Vattenfall, which have received several patents based on the results. The project is now continuing in the next phase where the process is to be implemented on an industrial scale.
The pilot phase resulted in the development of a new hydrogen-based technology for efficient fossil-free iron and steel production with 0.0 tonnes of CO2 emissions per tonne of steel. It also developed a new fossil-free iron product – sponge iron – that has significantly better properties than iron reduced with fossil gases such as natural gas. It also produced an efficient process practice for melting fossil-free sponge iron into crude steel in an electric arc furnace.
The project is the first in the world to demonstrate that the fossil-free value chain – from iron ore to steel – works on a semi-industrial scale. So far, more than 5,000 tonnes of hydrogen-reduced iron have been produced at the pilot plant in Luleå. Customers such as Volvo, Epiroc, Peab and many more are already using the fossil-free steel in vehicles, heavy machinery, buildings and consumer products.
Christian Koehl Germany
Swedish SSAB chooses Danieli to build new Lulea mill
Swedish steelmaker SSAB has awarded Italian steel plant maker Danieli to build a new mill in Lulea, northern Sweden, the two companies said July 15.
The plant will have a capacity of 2.5 million mt/year and consist of two electric arc furnaces, a secondary metallurgy facility and a direct strip-rolling mill to produce SSAB’s specialty products, along with a cold rolling complex.
The new mill will be supplied with a mix of fossil-free sponge iron from the Hybrit demonstration plant in Gallivare and recycled scrap.
The overall selected configuration of Danieli technology will allow SSAB to produce a wide range of hot-rolled strip in coil-to-coil and semi-endless modes, resulting in a product portfolio expansion incorporating a fully electric tunnel furnace to ensure a minimum carbon footprint, the press release said.
The startup of the new mill is planned for the end of 2028, with full operating capacity one year later with environmental permits that are expected at the end of 2024.
When completed, SSAB will decommission the existing blast furnace-based production system in Lulea and this will reduce Sweden’s CO2 emissions by 7% in addition to the 3% from the other company’s mill conversion in Oxelosund.
Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed Northwest European hot-rolled carbon-accounted coil stable on the day at Eur750/mt ($818/mt) ex-works Ruhr July 12.
Annalisa Villa
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.