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BUSINESS

French private sector growth hits six-year high: survey

France's private sector growth accelerated in May to its fastest level in six years, a key survey showed on Monday.

Published: 5 June 2017 14:36 CEST
French private sector growth hits six-year high: survey
Photo: lorakss/Depositphotos
Services were the main driver behind the expansion, according to the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) compiled by Markit, a financial services firm.
 
 
The PMI rose to 56.9 points in May, its highest level since May 2011, from 56.6 points in April, Markit said in a statement.
 
Any reading above the boom-bust 50 points line indicates the economy is expanding while a reading below suggests it contracting.
 
The sub-index for the services sector alone rose to 57.2 points above 56.7 in April, Markit said, citing a strong rise in new business which had a positive knock-on effect on jobs.
 
IHS Markit economist Alex Gill said the trend suggested that France could see the data impact favourably on its double-digit unemployment by as much as 0.4 percentage points, with business confidence at a six-year high given current “strong optimism.”
 

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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