SSAB Special Steels

SSAB Special Steels is a global steel supplier and service partner in quenched & tempered and advanced high-strength steels.

Fast facts

SSAB Special Steels’ wide product portfolio includes a number of unique steel grades. Hardox® our global brand of wear steels – has the highest awareness of all brands in the steel market. Through close collaboration, we help our customers to utilize our products in the best possible way to create new, innovative steel solutions and applications.


Employees, approximately: 4,000

Revenue in 2025: 26,352 million SEK


Head of SSAB Special Steels: Per Elfgren

Steel shipments in 2025: 1.2 million tonnes


550 Hardox Wearparts members

Present in more than 115 countries

Market position

SSAB Special Steels is the global leader in high-strength steels and is represented in markets in Europe, the Americas, APAC, the Middle East and Africa. About 50% of sales are in Europe and 20% in North America. SSAB defines the special steel market as hot-rolled products with a yield strength of 690 MPa and above. The total market is estimated to be around 5 million tonnes and, since demand grows structurally, it therefore outperforms demand growth for standard steel.

Market drivers

Requirements and demand for improved material and energy efficiency, as well as for productivity, are important drivers leading to the growing use of high-strength steels, which provide advantages in the form of stronger, lighter and more durable steel solutions. The penetration of high-strength steels is increasing in all markets, as customers upgrade their steel usage from standard to high-strength steels. In emerging markets, including Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia, where the use of high-strength steels is still relatively low, the market potential for high-strength steels is even higher than in mature markets like Europe and North America.

Market position

Strengths

  • Unique and highly advanced premium products with high quality
  • Unique go-to market model with a global network serving 115 countries
  • Close customer collaboration and joint projects with customers result in highly paced development and increased competitiveness
  • Strategy of being able to supply high-strength fossil-free steels in 2026

Strategy

  • Accelerating leadership in advanced high-strength steels
  • Investments in Q&T capacity and Oxelösund conversion increase capacity and flexibility, as well as production of decarbonized steel
  • Unique sales model addressing the global market including small and medium sized customers
  • Developing multiple sales channels including downstream activities

SSAB Special Steels has two main production sites: Oxelösund, Sweden, and Mobile, USA. Some products are produced at SSAB Europe’s sites. SSAB Special Steels is a global leader in the production of Q&T steels and has a market share of over 30% in wear steels.

SSAB Special Steels has a broad portfolio of advanced high-strength steels serving multiple customer segments and applications, with brands like Hardox® wear plate (high wear resistance), Strenx® performance steel (strong and light equipment), Armox® (protection) and Toolox® (engineering and tooling). These products are unique in the market as they can be used to manufacture stronger and lighter applications compared with conventional steel. These properties deliver significant customer value and enable stable pricing throughout the economic cycle.

SSAB Special Steels has a unique sales and support network capable of serving customers worldwide, including smaller companies in attractive customer segments. This approach makes SSAB Special Steels less dependent on a few larger accounts and improves stability over the business cycle. The subsidiary Abraservice Group and the Hardox® Wearparts network offer wear parts and repair services that strengthen SSAB Special Steels’ foothold on the market by supplying upstream processed products based mainly on Hardox®. The market for advanced high-strength steel is growing structurally, for example driven by increased focus on protection steel. In addition to structural growth, SSAB Special Steels continues to grow the market by upgrading the product portfolio and developing new applications together with customers. This enables an upgrade from standard steel to high-strength steel.

SSAB Special Steels

Shipments

  • Weaker demand, slow end of the year in Europe
  • Market share remains at a high level, gains in some key product groups

Operating result

  • Planned maintenance cost SEK 420m in Q4
  • Prices stable vs. Q3/24
  • Good pricing management in weak conditions, support from unique business model with local stock sales


Customers and end users

Customers and end-users

SSAB Special Steels’ main end customer segments include manufacturers of heavy transport, construction machinery and material handling including mining and recycling. SSAB Special Steels works in close collaboration with large OEMs, as well as with smaller and mid-sized customers through a global organization. Examples of customer applications include booms and chassis for mobile cranes, tipper bodies for trailers, and buckets for construction and mining machinery. We share a goal with our customers to make lighter, stronger end-products with better lifting capacity, higher payloads, longer service life and lower fuel consumption and emissions.

Main customer segments and applications:

  • Heavy transport, incl. trailers, trucks, railway transport, agriculture and forestry
  • Construction machinery, incl. lifting (dumpers, loaders and cranes)
  • Material handling, incl. mining and recycling (crushers, buckets and conveyors

High-strength structural steels:

  • Mobile cranes (booms, chassis and support legs)
  • Truck-mounted cranes
  • Aerial work platforms
  • Chassis for trailers and trucks
  • Agricultural machinery
  • Offshore (selected components such as jack-up rigs)

Wear steels:

  • Dumper bodies for both off-road and on-road use
  • Buckets 
  • Containers
  • Stationary mining equipment such as crushers
  • Recycling equipment
  • Wear parts to several segments and applications 

Protection steels:

  • Vehicles for safe transportation of people and valuables
  • Protection for buildings and counters

Tool steels:

  • Molds
  • Tool holders
  • Axles

Products and services

SSAB Special Steels has the widest product portfolio on the market, combined with deep knowledge of steel properties and performance. SSAB Special Steels is responsible for all SSAB’s Q&T and hot-rolled AHSS with yield strengths of 690 MPa and above. These products can further be divided into structural high-strength steels, wear steels, protection steels and tool steels. SSAB Special Steels’ product portfolio includes a number of brands and product lines, each of which has its own unique characteristics and target applications, and comes in a range of grades and dimensions:

  • Hardox® is the leading brand of wear steels. It offers a unique combination of hardness and toughness, which in turn enable lighter, more durable structures for higher payload and longer service life
  • Strenx® is SSAB’s high-strength structural steel product brand. Its high strength combined with good impact toughness and forming properties enable strong, light structures for higher payload
  • Raex™ is a distributor brand for wear steel designed to meet standard demands on the market
  • Toolox® is a pre-hardened tool steel with very good machinability and is available as plate and bars
  • Armox® and Ramor are protection plate with properties designed especially for the protection of life and property

SSAB Services

SSAB Services, a business unit within SSAB Special Steels, focuses on providing products and services to machine builders and the after-market business. It aims to develop the Hardox® Wearparts network and to facilitate the usage of high-strength steels by further promoting the SSAB Shape concept. SSAB’s technical support is a key element in our service offering and has a strong local presence worldwide.

  • Hardox® Wearparts is a network of companies for the production of wear parts and just-in-time repair services to end-users in the local aftermarket in the mining, quarrying, recycling and construction sectors. The network is represented across more than 80 countries and consists of approximately 540 companies 

  • SSAB Shape combines premium steel products with engineering and processing services offered through our own Shape Centers and a worldwide network of processing partners. The service includes customized product development and engineering, extensive design support and prefabrication services, as well as reliable, tailor-made logistics and stock services
    By providing technical support to customers at an early stage in the product development process, our technical experts contribute knowledge as to how the qualities of high-strength steels can be utilized to create new, innovative solutions and applications 

The benefits of tool steel in industrial applications

SSAB offers a variety of tool steels known for their strength, durability and ease of machining. These steels are formulated to meet the demands of different industrial applications. 

The role of armor steel in defense and security

SSAB offers armor steel, a type of steel specifically designed for use in ballistic and amors applications. It is characterized by high hardness and strength, making it suitable for use in a wide range of protective equipment and strucutres. 

Competitors

SSAB Special Steels' main competitors are ArcelorMittal, Dillinger, Voestalpine, Nucor, Nippon Steel, JFE and NLMK Clabeq.