Kingspan has invested in H2 Green Steel (H2GS), a company pioneering new green production methods for steel manufacturing using hydrogen.

Kingspan is investing in a Series A equity fundraising round due to close later this month. Earlier announced investors in the same fundraising round include Scania, the IMAS Foundation (IMAS Foundation is a sister foundation to the INGKA Foundation—the owner of INGKA Group, who owns and operates the majority of IKEA stores globally) and Vargas. Kingspan expects to ultimately be a single-digit minority shareholder alongside a similarly minded forward-thinking group of investors who wish to catalyse a transition to low-carbon steel. Kingspan’s investment also reflects an intention to enter into a long-term supply agreement with H2GS, to supply a substantial share of Kingspan’s future steel requirements. Kingspan is the first building materials company globally to make a commitment to procure H2 Green Steel at scale.

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The building and infrastructure sectors are the biggest users of steel, accounting for 52% of global demand, compared to 12% from the car industry. Steel accounts for 7% of emissions emitted globally.

The new source of steel is an important element in Kingspan's Planet Passionate sustainability strategy, an industry-leading decarbonisation programme with a goal to halve carbon intensity in Kingspan’s primary supply chain, and to reduce its manufacturing carbon emissions to as close to zero as technically possible.

H2GS's production process replaces coke and coal with green hydrogen to achieve an almost a totally CO2-free steel product. The process abates about 95% of the CO2 emissions associated with traditional blast furnaces steel makers: one tonne of H2GS steel will emit less than 0.1 tonne of CO2 compared to more than two tonnes of CO2 emitted producing a traditional tonne of steel.

The green hydrogen gas is produced by electrolysis using electricity generated from hydropower and wind power which is plentiful in the Boden-Luleå region in northern Sweden where H2GS is constructing the world’s first large-scale green steel production site. The total financing for the first phase of the project amounts to approximately €2.5 billion, the majority of which will be financed through green project financing, and Kingspan will be an early stage equity investor. Production will commence in 2024, and by 2030 the plant will be producing 5m tonnes of green steel annually. Henrik Henriksson, currently CEO of Scania (VW-Group), will lead the company from 01 May.