SSAB’s eco-friendly steel to mark ‘first entry into shipbuilding’ at Norway’s Salthammer shipyard

Tibnor, a subsidiary of Sweden’s steel specialist SSAB, is set to supply its “zero emission” steel made from recycled material and produced with fossil-free electricity and biogas to Norway’s Salthammer Båtbyggeri shipyard.

As informed, Tibnor will deliver a total of around 300 tons of its SSAB Zero steel to the Norwegian shipyard in two batches, which are, at the same time, believed to be the first batches of this steel to be handed over in the shipbuilding industry.

The steel itself is described as having near zero fossil emissions during production, without mass balancing allocation of emission reduction or carbon emission offsetting.

“It is absolutely fantastic that the focus is on environmentally friendly zero-emission steel and that it is completely in line with our goals in innovation and sustainability. With this, we hope that we can show that there are good and greener solutions in our industry,” Robert Moen, head of HSE, Quality and Sustainability at Salthammer Båtbyggeri, highlighted.

The Salthammer shipyard, which is located in the Vestnes municipality on the west coast of Norway, has already been commissioned by compatriot shipping service supplier AQS Rederi to build two approximately 30-meter electric-powered Coastern 28eH supply vessels, intended for fish farming tasks.

As per SSAB, the Coastern 28eH is a supply ship with large cranes, efficient deck equipment and a bollard pull of over 25 tonnes. Additionally, the vessels are said to be fitted with an anti-tilting system to improve crane capacity.

As for the two newly ordered ones, SSAB has revealed that they will feature a ‘newly developed design’ from Tomra Engineering.

As explained, the ships—which are slated for a handover in Q4 2025 and Q2 2026—are built with ‘energy efficiency and design flexibility in mind’. According to SSAB, the vessels will have electric propulsion and will be powered by 2000 kW and 1,600 kW batteries, of which the larger pack can be charged with shore power, enabling ‘continuous electric use’.

Reflecting on this development AQS General Manager Pål Anders Lauvsnes emphasized that this was ‘an important step’ for the company’s ambition of having an ‘environmentally-friendly, all-electric fleet by 2033.’

If the shipping industry entirely shifted toward low-emission steel, nearly 800MtCO2 could be eliminated, a study by UMAS and Lloyd’s Register Maritime Decarbonisation Hub showed.

Specifically, The 2023 Breakthrough Agenda, an annual collaboration by the International Energy Agency (IEA), the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), and the UN Climate Change High-Level Champions, accentuated that to reach net-zero by mid-century, total CO2 emissions and the direct CO2 emission intensity from the steel sector must decrease by approximately 25 percent by 2030.

Although the steel manufacturing industry is yet to fully be on track to meet international climate standards, certain developments have pushed this sector forward.

In 2023, Japan’s shipping heavyweight Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha (K Line) made the decision to fit one of its newbuild bulkers with JGREEX, a green steel product made by compatriot JFE Steel Corporation. The Ultramax bulker, which Imabari Shipbuilding will construct, is expected to be completed in 2026, and, according to K Line, it will be the ‘world’s largest vessel’ using green steel only.

Another development took place in October 2024 when Japan’s classification society ClassNK gave its nod of approval via a “first-ever” class notation for the use of green steel.

The notation was granted to NYK Bulk & Projects Carriers’ bulk carrier Bright Queen, built by Higaki Shipbuilding using JGREEX.