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SAS to lose profits over Spanair bankruptcy

Scandinavian airline SAS warned late Friday its former subsidiary Spanair's decision to file for bankruptcy would hit its results to the tune of 1.7 billion kronor ($252 million).

“Due to the situation in Spanair, SAS has decided to make a write down of the outstanding debt and receivables on Spanair (which will) affect the SAS Group’s result as a non-recurring item and equity negatively by 1.7 billion kronor in total,” the Scandinavian airline said in a statement.

The company said however that the effect on its “liquid assets” would amount to between 200 and 300 million kronor.

SAS, which sold off most of its once wholly owned subsidiary Spanair in 2009, said it still owned 10.9 percent of the Spanish airline.

But it stressed “the value of these shares has already been written down and are booked at zero value.”

SAS said it would be a creditor in Spanair’s bankruptcy process, and pointed to the 10.6 billion kronor “financial preparedness” it listed in its third quarter earnings report. The write-down would “have a limited effect on SAS liquidity”, it said.

SAS, which posted a slim profit in the third quarter, is scheduled to announce its results for the fourth quarter and full-year 2011 on February 8.

The company said Friday that, not including the write-down and other non-recurring items, it expected the full year result to be positive.

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ENVIRONMENT

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

The Swedish steel giant SSAB has announced plans to build a new steel plant in Luleå for 52 billion kronor (€4.5 billion), with the new plant expected to produce 2.5 million tons of steel a year from 2028.

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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