SSAB and ILAB enter into partnership on future deliveries of fossil-free steel for containers

ILAB Container AB will use fossil-free steel from SSAB to manufacture containers with lower carbon emissions than anything available on the market at present. The goal is to start integrating fossil-free steel into the product portfolio from 2026.

ILAB Container AB offers, designs and produces simple, safe and functional containers for collecting, sorting and transporting recyclable materials and products for the construction sector in the Nordic region, in order to contribute to the circular economy.

“We’ve been collaborating with ILAB since 2008, and together we’ve developed items including their gravel flatbed trailers in Hardox^® 500Tuf with a fully reinforced profile tube frame in Strenx^® 700. Now we’re taking another step in our partnership, with this investment in fossil-free containers,” says SSAB’s technical project manager Per-Olof Kull.

“It’s going to be exciting to develop our long-standing partnership with SSAB towards fossil-free material, so we can reduce our climate impact together. At the same time, we’re continuing our work to reduce the climate footprint of our entire value chain,” says ILAB’s CEO Jim Isaksson.

Until fossil-free steel is available, ILAB Container AB will be able to offer certain products with SSAB Zero™, a steel based on recycled steel scrap and produced using fossil-free electricity and biogas, which generates 0.0 kg CO2e emissions per kg of steel (Scopes 1-2).

SSAB is collaborating with iron ore producer LKAB and energy company Vattenfall as part of the HYBRIT initiative to develop a value chain for fossil-free iron and steel production, and to replace the coal traditionally used for iron ore-based steel production with fossil-free electricity and hydrogen. This process effectively eliminates carbon dioxide emissions in steel production.