OSLO, March 28 (Reuters) – Swedish steelmaker SSAB (SSABa.ST) aims to boost its annual profit by at least 10 billion Swedish crowns ($968 million) from 2030 onwards as it transitions to carbon-free metals production, the company said on Tuesday.
SSAB last year said it would speed up a switch to fossil-free steel production, investing heavily to almost eliminate its carbon dioxide emissions by 2030, albeit depending on access to large amounts of non-polluting electricity.
“Investments in the transformation of the Nordic production system … are expected to total of around 50 billion crowns, in line with earlier estimate,” SSAB said in a statement ahead of a strategy update on Tuesday.
“Altogether, we can see an annual earnings potential of at least 10 billion crowns once the transformation is completed,” SSAB’s CEO Martin Lindqvist said.
The annual improvement in earnings would come from 5 billion crowns of cost cuts, while higher volumes and premium product deliveries contributing the rest, compared to the company’s current system of blast furnace technology, SSAB said.
($1 = 10.3347 Swedish crowns)
Reporting by Terje Solsvik, editing by Essi Lehto
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