”SMA Mineral and SSAB have both set ambitious goals for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Carbon dioxide emissions must be halved by 2030 at the latest. We are currently in intensive talks with our biggest customers about available options and the investments we should make. We do not of course place all of the responsibility on our customers, but we naturally want any major sustainability investments we make to contribute to mutual competitiveness and long-term collaboration.

In our opinion, HYBRIT and SSAB’s major transition in Oxelösund are absolutely fantastic projects. They not only set new sustainability standards for the steel industry, but also for its supply chain. And there is quite clearly a great demand for green steel. SMA Mineral is ‘super-tagged’ to contribute and form part of this!

The fact that around half of the limestone’s mass is emitted as CO₂ in the slaking process is a major challenge. This can only be mitigated by capturing the carbon dioxide, which would entail major projects and collaborations. SMA Mineral is involved in one such project in Norway, and there are other promising initiatives elsewhere in the Nordics.

Switching to fossil-free fuel will be easier. We have a number of things in the pipeline that we can tell you more about in the future! Our plan for Oxelösund, as described in the article about SSAB, is first to transition to cleaner natural gas fuel, and to switch to fossil-free fuel such as biogas or bio oil at a later date.

And of course, there are many things we can do to improve the company’s sustainability performance; for example, we’re working hard on using local limestone raw materials to avoid unnecessarily long haulage.”

Per Bodén, Marketing & Business Development Director