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Sweden axes ethanol tax during Lula visit

Sweden agreed on Tuesday to abolish a tax on ethanol, which it currently purchases from Brazil, under a biofuels accord signed during a visit of Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to Stockholm, officials said.

Published: 12 September 2007 09:01 CEST

“We have signed an agreement regarding science and cooperation concerning bioenergy,” Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt told a press conference.

“We intend to abolish this special tax that was introduced on January 1, 2006 in Sweden.

“We want to take away this tax as fast as possible,” he added, with the move expected to take effect on January 1, 2009.

Ethanol, made from sugar cane, is one of the most efficient sources of biofuel, and is also a market where Brazil hopes to expand its reach.

Lula, who arrived here Tuesday on a two-day state visit, said: “I’m very happy to be backed by Sweden. The relations between Sweden and Brazil are extraordinarily good.

“There are 200 Swedish companies in Brazil, but it’s not only because of the number of jobs that are generated by Swedish companies but also because of the political thinking, the way we (have worked) together for so many years.”

Lula said that in the face of climate change, “we can no longer keep blaming someone else for being responsible” for threats to the planet.

“If each party takes … responsibililty to do things right, then we have a chance to save our planet.”

Lula was to take part in a seminar on biofuels on Wednesday before leaving for Denmark. He will then visit Oslo on Friday and will arrive in Madrid on September 17.

Sweden's SSAB to build €4.5bn green steel plant in Luleå

“The transformation of Luleå is a major step on our journey to fossil-free steel production,” the company’s chief executive, Martin Lindqvist, said in a press release. “We will remove seven percent of Sweden’s carbon dioxide emissions, strengthen our competitiveness and secure jobs with the most cost-effective and sustainable sheet metal production in Europe.”

The new mini-mill, which is expected to start production at the end of 2028 and to hit full capacity in 2029, will include two electric arc furnaces, advanced secondary metallurgy, a direct strip rolling mill to produce SSABs specialty products, and a cold rolling complex to develop premium products for the transport industry.

It will be fed partly from hydrogen reduced iron ore produced at the HYBRIT joint venture in Gälliväre and partly with scrap steel. The company hopes to receive its environemntal permits by the end of 2024.

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The announcement comes just one week after SSAB revealed that it was seeking $500m in funding from the US government to develop a second HYBRIT manufacturing facility, using green hydrogen instead of fossil fuels to produce direct reduced iron and steel.

The company said it also hoped to expand capacity at SSAB’s steel mill in Montpelier, Iowa.

The two new investment announcements strengthen the company’s claim to be the global pioneer in fossil-free steel.

It produced the world’s first sponge iron made with hydrogen instead of coke at its Hybrit pilot plant in Luleå in 2021. Gälliväre was chosen that same year as the site for the world’s first industrial scale plant using the technology.

In 2023, SSAB announced it would transform its steel mill in Oxelösund to fossil-free production.

The company’s Raahe mill in Finland, which currently has new most advanced equipment, will be the last of the company’s big plants to shift away from blast furnaces.

The steel industry currently produces 7 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, and shifting to hydrogen reduced steel and closing blast furnaces will reduce Sweden’s carbon emissions by 10 per cent and Finland’s by 7 per cent.

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