Wednesday, July 05, 2023

'Green' Steel Maker Signs €1.5 Billion Deal With German Auto-Industry Supplier

Lars Paulsson
Tue, July 4, 2023 



(Bloomberg) -- H2 Green Steel AB signed a seven-year steel delivery deal with one of the biggest suppliers to the automotive industry worth €1.5 billion ($1.64 billion).

The agreement, one of H2GS’s largest yet, covers a “significant share” of ZF Friedrichshafen AG’s annual steel demand of about 2.5 million tons, according to a statement Tuesday. Deliveries of near zero-emissions steel are due to start in 2026.

The Swedish company is among a new breed of steelmakers seeking to overhaul the way the alloy is manufactured in one of the most polluting industries in the world, replacing coal with green hydrogen made using renewable power. The sector, which has relied largely on the same production techniques for more than a century, accounts for about 7% of global carbon dioxide emissions.

Read more: What It Would Take to Make Steelmaking Greener: QuickTake

The deal is expected to reduce ZF’s CO2 emissions by close to 2.3 million tons compared with traditional steelmaking processes, according to the statement. H2GS will also work together with ZF’s sub-suppliers.

The company last month received a full environmental permit to start building a plant in Boden in northern Sweden. The facility is poised to produce 5 million tons of so-called green steel annually by the end of the decade.

The founder and largest shareholder of H2GS is Vargas Holding AB, which is also co-founder and one of the larger stakeholders in Swedish battery maker Northvolt AB.

No comments: