Sweden will receive an EU grant of €155.7 million for decarbonization and transformation of steel industry

Industrial regions of the country account for a significant share of greenhouse gas emissions, the main sources of which are the iron and steel industries

Sweden will receive €155.7 million ($154.6 million) in EU grants to help the country achieve climate neutrality by 2045. The funds are intended, in particular, for the reduction of industrial emissions through the transformation of the iron and steel industries. Eurometal reports about it with the reference to the European Commission’s statement.

The funds will come from the EU Just Transformation Fund (JTF). The grant will be used to cover €311.5 million that Sweden plans to invest in its energy transition. €9 million of the amount allocated from the JTF will go towards increasing the power grid capacity of the island of Holland.

According to the World Steel Producers Association, Sweden produced 4.7 million tons of crude steel last year, 2.7 million tons in the first 7 months of 2022 (down 1% y/y).

Energy consumption by the country’s steel industry, according to the Jernkontoret steel industry association, in 2019 was 21 TWh, electricity consumption was 4 TWh. At the same time, emissions during the same period amounted to 1,900 Mt of nitrogen oxides and 1,200 Mt of sulfur oxides.

The JTF will help alleviate this impact by investing in research and innovation and in the retraining and reskilling of workers, the European Commission said. The fund will also support targeted investments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in activities covered by the EU ETS, such as steel and cement production.

Recently Tata Steel announced about investing more than €65 million in the design of hydrogen-based steel production in the city of Eimeiden. Tata Steel signed an agreement on further technical training of production with three firms. All of them have special qualifications to organize the production.

As GMK Center reported earlier,Ukraine’s steel industry will require $25 billion of capital investments, or estimated $1 thousand per ton of BOF capacities to achieve climate neutrality.