And two. While the first electric battery cells came out of its giga-factory in Skelleftea, in northern Sweden, at the end of December 2021, the Swedish company Northvolt announced, on February 4, the construction of a second factory in Gothenburg, on the west coast of the country, as part of a partnership with the manufacturer Volvo Cars, which became part of the Chinese Geely in 2010. The plant will equip half a million brand cars and should create 3 000 new jobs.
For the new Minister for Industry, interviewed by The worldthere is no doubt: Sweden is experiencing “an industrial green revolution”. Appointed on November 30, 2021, Karl-Petter Thorwaldsson led Sweden’s largest trade union center, Landsorganisationen i Sverige (LO), between 2012 and 2020. He who deplored the deindustrialisation of the country a few years ago now believes that “the prospects for a reindustrialisation of Sweden have never been so good as today”.
In the north of the country alone, where 500,000 people currently live, there is now talk of 100,000 job creations by 2030. Some of the biggest investments come from the flagships of Swedish industry and aim to decarbonize their production. The others come from new players, such as Northvolt, who have chosen Sweden mainly because of the abundance of green electricity, especially in the north of the country.
Zero carbon steel
For the industrial giants, there is no time to lose: the country of 10 million inhabitants is committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2045. However, its industry, which represents nearly 20% of its gross domestic product, is now responsible for a third of its CO emissions2. Among all the projects, the transformation of the mining company LKAB, which supplies 90% of the iron ore produced in Europe, and that of the steelmaker SSAB already promise to be the most ambitious.
By 2045, the LKAB group, 100% controlled by the Swedish state, intends to decarbonize all its operations and produce iron without any fossil fuels, for the manufacture of zero carbon steel. Cost of the operation: 400 billion crowns (38 billion euros) over twenty-five years, ie one of the largest industrial investments ever made in Sweden. According to its boss, Jan Moström, it should enable LKAB to double its turnover by 2045 and continue production until at least 2060.
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