| Climate change and scarce resources | Population growth and urbanization | Digitalization | Changing global market conditions | |
| Impacts on the steel industry |
• Increasing demand for steel with a low
climate impact • Increasing cost of carbon emissions, especially within the EU • Development of more resource and carbon-efficient products and processes • Climate change can affect steel production and supply chains |
• Increasing demand for steel in the
construction, infrastructure and energy
sectors • Increasing demand for sustainable and energy-efficient buildings and traffic solutions |
• Digital services provide greater
availability of more efficient control
systems and increased transparency
in the value chain • E-commerce and digital platforms impact market dynamics |
• Higher importance of regional markets
because of growing protectionism and
trade policy restrictions • Changed supply chains due to increasing regionalization, disruptions due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and shutdowns related to Covid-19 • Increasing demand for steel in developing economies |
| Examples of how SSAB responds to the trends | • SSAB intends to be the first steel company to launch, in 2026, fossil-free steel at a commercial scale and to replace blast furnaces and coke plants with electric arc furnaces in around 2030 | • SSAB offers a broad range of steel products used in construction and infrastructure, for example for construction machinery and renewable energy installations |
• SSAB develops the portfolio of digital
services and tools as well as new
business areas such as additive
manufacturing • SSAB works with the use of robotics, machine learning and advanced analysis to improve production stability and increase process efficiency |
• SSAB continues to secure home market
positions and improve production
capacity to enable each site to cover a
better range of products • SSAB works to improve its position on emerging markets for high-strength steel |