The rumors were already there and now the Swedish SSAB and Tata Steel have confirmed it. Discussions are ongoing about a takeover of Tata Steel Netherlands. A different solution is being sought for the British branch that has been losing for years.
The first reactions from IJmuiden, the trade unions and the cabinet are positive, although there is some caution because nothing is known about the conditions yet. The Swedes are in talks about this with the Indian parent company. It is known, however, that SSAB is regarded in the steel industry as a forerunner in the field of more sustainable steel production.
And sustainability is also badly needed in the Netherlands. Because if all coal-fired power stations in the Netherlands are closed in ten years’ time, Tata Steel IJmuiden will be the last company in the Netherlands to be ‘coal-fired’ as it stands now. The steel plant in IJmuiden now emits just as much CO2 as more than half of all passenger cars in the Netherlands.
The environment is complaining about constant rain and there are concerns about the health of children in particular, the RIVM is investigating this. And the Public Prosecution Service has started a criminal investigation into violation of environmental regulations.
Hydrogen or CO2 capture?
According to Piet Joustra, director of a Hoogovens division in the 1990s, a takeover by the Swedish SSAB would be a very good step when it comes to sustainability. Today, Joustra is chairman of a group of economists and former directors who want the steel company to switch much more quickly to methods of making steel without coal. This year they wrote a plan with which Tata Steel IJmuiden, according to them, can ‘enter the coming decades’.
“SSAB has a pilot plant where carbon-free steel is made using green hydrogen. That means that they have opted for that route at corporate level,” says Joustra. “It’s good if you have a mother who sees that as the right way to CO2-free steel.”
The current pipeline of Tata Steel IJmuiden only sees scope for alternatives that replace coal with hydrogen after 2040. In the production of steel, the coal is not only fuel, but also provides the chemical process to make iron and later steel. That makes it complex.
In the coming years, Tata Steel will first focus on what it says is the “largest CO2 capture installation in the world”. The CO2 that Tata will capture must initially be stored in empty gas fields under the North Sea.
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