
SSAB's funding is focused on supporting the Group’s strategy and covering the needs for financing within the framework of the Group's financial policy. The funding is primarily executed through the parent company. In order to minimize the refinancing risk, the objective is that the debt should have an even maturity profile. Short-term funding is primarily obtained through the commercial paper markets in Sweden and Finland. SSAB has a strong and supportive bank group providing committed back-stop facilities to secure the short-term funding and liquidity needs. In order to secure access to competitively priced funding in the relevant markets, SSAB strives to be transparent and informative toward the investor community.
SSAB’s funding is conducted primarily through the bank market and existing note and commercial paper programs. For borrowing for terms of up to ten years, a European Medium Term Note program (EMTN) is used, while Swedish and Finnish commercial paper programs are used for borrowing for shorter terms. The program limit of the EMTN program is EUR 2,000 million. The Swedish commercial paper program has a limit of SEK 5,000 million and the Finnish commercial paper program has a limit of EUR 500 million.
On March 31, 2020 S&P Global Ratings confirmed its long-term corporate credit rating on SSAB to “BB+”, but revised the outlook to Negative from Stable.
At the same time, S&P affirmed the “B” short-term corporate credit rating. On November 23, 2020 S & P Global Rating decided to put the SSAB AB long Term rating on Credit Watch negative.