SSAB, LKAB and Vattenfall welcome higher ambitions to reach climate targets

HYBRIT's owners SSAB, LKAB and Vattenfall welcome the higher ambitions to reach climate targets discussed at the COP25 climate summit in Madrid. The companies cite the need for powerful measures to secure industrial transition. The HYBRIT initiative for fossil-free steel production shows that zero net emissions is possible.

At Monday's meeting of the Leadership Group for Industry Transition, SSAB, LKAB and Vattenfall jointly highlighted a number of conditions needed, both within the EU and globally, to rapidly decarbonize industry worldwide.

The three companies were invited to the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York in September to participate in the Leadership Group for Industry Transition, with the aim of converting even the hard to abate industries such as steel and cement. The Leadership Group is one of the UN climate tracks initiated by the governments of Sweden and India.

“We welcome further concrete steps to reach the global climate targets. The EU has an opportunity to lead the industrial transition. A European Green Deal must include an ambitious Industrial strategy that focuses on innovation, supports the upscaling of new technologies, and facilitates access to private and public funding. It should also emphasize creating markets for low carbon products, for example through an effective ETS system, and facilitate the necessary infrastructure for fossil-free electricity and hydrogen,” says Martin Pei, CTO of SSAB and Chairman of HYBRIT.

“Our goal is to create a completely fossil-free value chain, from the mine to the finished steel product. A fossil-free steel industry has the potential to reduce the world’s total carbon dioxide emissions by 7 percent, and the transition is a necessity if we are to meet our shared climate goals,” says Jan Moström, President and CEO of LKAB.

“Continued sufficient access to fossil-free electricity with high delivery reliability and competitive pricing, as well as initiatives for better flexibility, are needed to enable the industrial transition globally. The HYBRIT project´s objective of storing hydrogen also contributes to increased flexibility by using storage to balance and stabilize the energy system,” says Cecilia Hellner, Head of Public and Regulatory Affairs Sweden at Vattenfall.

The three companies are represented at COP25 by Martin Pei (SSAB), Jan Moström (LKAB) and Cecilia Hellner (Vattenfall), among others.

Hybrit Development AB is a joint venture of SSAB, LKAB and Vattenfall with the aim of advancing HYBRIT technology from laboratory scale to full production scale to enable the world's first fossil-free ore-based steelmaking. By using fossil-free electricity and hydrogen instead of coke and carbon for iron ore reduction, the byproduct will be normal water instead of carbon dioxide.

At Luleå in northern Sweden, HYBRIT is now building the world's first pilot plant based on direct reduction of iron ore with hydrogen, which will be ready in 2020. SSAB´s goal is a market launch of the first fossil-free steel products in 2026.

SSAB, LKAB and Vattenfall participation at the COP25 summit:

Monday, December 9
Leadership Group for Industry Transition

Tuesday, December 10
Business Sweden, “The key to Swedish sustainable success” (2:00-2:45 pm), Nordic Pavilion

Wednesday, December 11
Business Sweden, “Business + politics = fast change” (11.30-12.30 am), Nordic Pavilion

Thursday, December 12
Business Europe, “Industrial decarbonisation: Key examples from EU business” (12:30-2:00 pm), EU Pavilion (LKAB)
HYBRIT: Technology transition for industry (2:30-4:00 pm), EU Pavilion (SSAB, LKAB & Vattenfall)
”Accelerating industry transformation – IKEA becoming climate positive by 2030” (4:30-6:00 pm), EU Pavilion (Vattenfall)

Friday, December 13
Business Sweden, “Becoming fossil free to increase competitiveness” (9:30-10:15 am), Nordic Pavilion (LKAB)
Cooperating for the future: Sustainable Underground Mining (2:30-4:00 pm), EU Pavilion (LKAB)

For further information, please contact:

Magnus Kryssare, Press Officer, Vattenfall magnus.kryssare@vattenfall.com, +46 76 769 56 07

Mia Widell, Press Relations Manager, SSAB mia.widell@ssab.com +46 76 5272501

Anders Lindberg, Group Media Relations Manager, LKAB anders.lindberg@lkab.com +46 980 783 55

For more information, contact:

Vattenfall Press Office +46 8 739 5010, press@vattenfall.com