SSAB halts talks with Feds on Miss. green steel plant

The Department of Energy’s Industrial Demonstrations Program page states that it is no longer moving forward with SSAB.

Recall that the the Energy Department in March picked SSAB – and several other companies – to receive funding for projects to further decarbonize the steel industry.

The department earmarked up to $500 million for SSAB in a project that would see the construction of a Hybrit manufacturing facility in Perry County, Miss. The plant would produce fossil-free iron using Hybrit technology – which entails using green hydrogen instead of fossil fuels. The only other facility using that technology is SSAB’s plant in Luleå, Sweden.

The Biden administration had announced the grant as part of a larger, $6-billion Energy Department initiative. Funding came from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. The goal: to support decarbonization in energy-intensive industries.

The Energy Department also selected two Cleveland-Cliffs projects for grants of up to $575 million. Of that amount, the department budgeted $500 million to replace the blast furnace at Cliffs’ Middletown Works in Ohio with a direct-reduced iron plate and two electric melting furnaces. It also earmarked $75 million to upgrade electrical steel production at the company’s Butler Works in western Pennsylvania

In addition, the Energy Department awarded Vale USA for a project to produce low-emissions, cold-agglomerated iron ore briquettes. It was slated to be located along the Gulf Coast – with the federal government sharing up to $282.9 million of the costs.

A spokesperson said in an emailed statement: “While SSAB continues the technical development of decarbonization projects in the US, including Hybrit, we are no longer negotiating with the Department of Energy’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations for the completion of a co-operative agreement. SSAB remains focused on technical exchanges with the DOE and collaboration with other potential partners related to the hydrogen, clean energy, and equipment supply chains.”

SSAB declined to elaborate on why it backed out of talks or what the future of the Mississippi project would be.

Cliffs in September said it remained committed to the decarbonization projects despite media reports to the contrary.