SSAB, Gestamp Partner for Fossil-Free Automotive Steel
SSAB has entered an agreement with Spain-based Gestamp, a global tier-one automotive supplier of lightweight and safety components, to deliver fossil-free steel for body-in-white and chassis system products.
Gestamp is a multinational company specialising in the design, development and manufacture of highly engineered metal components for the main vehicle manufacturers. It develops products with an innovative design to produce lighter and safer vehicles, which offer lower energy consumption and a lower environmental impact. Its products cover the areas of BiW, chassis, and mechanisms. Gestamp is present in 24 countries with 115 production plants (5 under construction), 13 R&D centres, and a workforce of nearly 43,000 employees worldwide.
“The fossil-free steel partnership with SSAB will further strengthen Gestamp’s position to develop innovative and sustainable designed automotive components to achieve increasingly safer, lighter vehicles, thereby reducing energy consumption and environmental impact. It will also strongly contribute to Gestamp’s sustainability targets,” says Javier Imaz, CPO (Chief Procurement Officer) at Gestamp.
“We are delighted to welcome Gestamp as SSAB Fossil-free™ steel partner. Together, we will support the automotive industry in delivering the demanding CO2 reductions that both producers and consumers are demanding, and we will supply more sustainable cars to the end user,” says Tony Harris, Head of Sales and Business Development at SSAB Europe.
This agreement marks a new step in the long-standing partnership between Gestamp and SSAB that comprises a variety of actions addressing all aspects of the development chain, from sales to production to testing and customer experience as an example of inter-company cooperation in the world of steel products.
SSAB aims to revolutionise the entire steelmaking process. SSAB plans to deliver fossil-free steel to the market at a commercial scale in 2026 and to largely eliminate carbon dioxide emissions from its own operations in around 2030. SSAB’s steelmaking process of fossil-free steel virtually eliminates carbon dioxide emissions. The by-product from steelmaking would then be water. During the process, coking coal, traditionally used for iron ore-based steelmaking, will be replaced with fossil-free electricity and hydrogen.
Source: SSAB