A funding initiative with signal effect for the European steel industry: Swedish steel manufacturer SSAB has received EU support of 20 million euros for a research and development program for the production of fossil-free steel. The funds will be used to further develop HYBRIT technology, which relies on hydrogen direct reduction instead of coal blast furnaces and is expected to reduce CO₂ emissions from steel production by up to 95 percent.
For the construction industry, this development is of considerable significance: Structural steel and reinforcement steel produce approximately 1.85 tonnes of CO₂ per tonne of steel in conventional manufacturing. With an annual European consumption of around 40 million tonnes of concrete steel, this corresponds to a CO₂ emission of over 70 million tonnes. SSAB's technology could almost completely eliminate these emissions and thereby fundamentally change the environmental profiles of reinforced concrete structures.
The funding accelerates the industrialization of a process that has already been validated in pilot plants. SSAB plans to provide commercial quantities of fossil-free steel from 2026 onwards. The mechanical properties – tensile strength, yield strength and ductility – meet the requirements of common strength classes according to EN 10080 for concrete steels. Planners can therefore use fossil-free steel without modifications in static calculations according to Eurocode 2.
The market impacts are multifaceted: While the expected price premium is initially 20 to 30 percent compared to conventional steel, increasing CO₂ pricing in the EU emissions trading system and stricter EPD requirements in tenders create incentives for climate-neutral structural steel. Furthermore, SSAB cooperates with cement manufacturers such as Heidelberg Materials to unlock synergies between fossil-free steel and low-CO₂ cement binders.
The EU funding underscores the political priority of steel decarbonization within the framework of the Green Deal. Parallel to decarbonization initiatives in brick production, competition for climate-neutral building materials is emerging. For architects and building owners, this means: Material standard compliance remains intact, while sustainability assessment according to DGNB and LEED improves significantly. With SSAB's funding, fossil-free steel is moving from niche to series maturity – a milestone for climate-neutral construction by 2045.
