Mercedes-Benz gets green steel from Salzgitter
German steel maker Salzgitter AG subsidiary Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH will supply green flat steel products with a CO2 footprint reduced by more than 66% to four German plants of Mercedes-Benz AG as early as 2021.
The low CO2 steel grades are produced in the Peine electric steelworks in combination with the rolling mills and galvanizing plants in Salzgitter. Mercedes-Benz AG is the first automobile manufacturer to be supplied by Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH with CO2 reduced steel as cold thin sheet and hot-dip galvanized sheet for series production. This results in structural and body parts for various car models, among other things.
Salzgitter AG CEO Mr Gunnar Groebler said “The expansion of our product portfolio to include green flat steel via the new low CO2 production route is an important component of our decarbonization strategy that we are already implementing today.
In addition, we will follow the path we have taken towards low CO2 steel production with SALCOS steelmaking consistently. This fundamental transformation enables us to completely replace conventional steel production in defined steps with hydrogen-based processes. In this way, we will achieve a CO2 reduction of around 95% in the target image and thus avoid around 1% of today’s German emissions. ”
As the first European steel manufacturer, Salzgitter AG has conformity statements based on the VERIsteel procedure of TÜV SÜD for its new ones get green steel products. The procedure enables the detection of the product-specific CO2 emissions in steel production and accompanies the process of decarbonization. The conformity statements confirm that when the production route is changed from the conventional blast furnace route to the electric steel route, CO2 savings of between 66% and 75% are achieved, depending on the end product delivered.
Together with its steel suppliers, Mercedes-Benz is retooling its supply chain to focus on the prevention and reduction of CO2 emissions rather than compensation. Mercedes-Benz AG took an equity stake in Swedish start-up H2 Green Steel in May 2021 as a way to introduce CO2 frees steel into series production.
