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Danfoss makes bid for Finland’s Vacon

The two Nordic countries will combine to become a "global player" in the air conditioning (AC) drives market.

Published: 12 September 2014 11:58 CEST
Danfoss makes bid for Finland's Vacon
Photo: Claus Fisker/Scanpix
Danish engineering company Danfoss announced on Friday a bid worth 1.04 billion euros (9.7 billion kroner, $1.341 billion) for Finnish air conditioning equipment firm Vacon which, it said, was recommending its shareholders to accept.
 
The two groups said they aimed to become a "global player" in the air conditioning (AC) drives market.
 
Vacon makes drivers which control electric motors.
 
Vacon chief executive Vesa Laisi said in a joint statement that "customers will benefit significantly from the two companies joining forces" as the deal will "bring even more competitive, innovative, and attractive AC drives to the market".
 
Danfoss chief executive Niels Christiansen said in the statement: "By creating this new drives business we can ensure a strong long-term growth trajectory."
 
Danfoss specialises in refrigeration, air conditioning and heating.
 
In 2013, Vacon, which is listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange, reported revenue of 403 million euros.
 
Vacon has about 1,600 employees in 30 countries, whereas Danfoss employs about 22,500 people in 20 countries.
 
In 2013, the Danish group posted sales of 4.5 billion euros.

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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.

Published: 2 April 2024 13:44 CEST
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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