The Swedish steelmaker SSAB has curtailed negotiations on the potential acquisition of the Dutch steel mill IJmuiden and related rolling capacities belonging to the transnational group Tata Steel, including due to the impossibility of switching to green metallurgy.
As reported in November, SSAB was engaged in negotiations to buy IJmuiden. According to analysts, the deal could be worth about $ 2-3 billion.
We have carefully evaluated the Tata Steel IJmuiden plant and concluded that the takeover would be difficult to implement due to certain technical reasons. The synergies we saw in this transaction will not fully justify the costs and investments required for our green transformation
Martin Lindqvist, Chief Executive Officer of SSAB
SSAB is known to have attracted investors to implement Hybrit’s carbon-free steelmaking technology at its production facilities in Sweden and Finland. The company expects to start producing such “green” steel in 2026 and to achieve climate neutrality by 2045.
At the same time, the IJmuiden steel plant includes such CO2-generating assets as a pelletizing facility, a sintering plant, two blast furnaces, and two coke oven batteries. In this regard, the purchase of the Dutch company looks inexpedient for SSAB.
European Green Deal
Let us remind that in December 2019, the European Commission adopted a plan (the European Green Deal) to achieve zero greenhouse gas emissions and zero environmental pollution in the member states of the European Union by switching from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy and raw materials by 2050.
To achieve this goal, the EU intends to spend 1 trillion euro in the next ten years. The aim of the plan’s activities is the fight against global warming and environmental pollution.