SSAB and Snop start strategic partnership in fossil-free steel for automotive components

The Groupe Financière SNOP Dunois (FSD) is a privately owned major tier-one automotive supplier with established relationships with all European OEMs. The group has three divisions (Snop, Smom and Balconi) and employs over 8,200 people in twelve countries at 36 production sites and 4 technical centers. Groupe FSD offers its customers a broad product portfolio, supplying body structure stampings, roll-formed parts and assemblies for cars and commercial vehicles, as well as stamping dies and automatic presses.

“We are delighted to have signed this agreement with our partner SSAB. Achieving our objective of reducing our CO2 emissions by 30% before 2030, and to be net zero in 2050, is a must for us, for our industry, and for the preservation of our planet. We know that to achieve it, we can count on SSAB, which is a major player in the decarbonization of the steel industry,” says Pierre Mainguy, Purchasing Director, Snop.

“We are pleased to support Snop’s sustainability goals in the automotive industry in delivering the tough CO2 reductions that both producers and consumers require for more sustainable cars. The virtually fossil emission-free steel we produce retains its high quality, but its climate impact is significantly lower compared to steel based on traditional blast furnace technology. This helps to reduce our customers' carbon footprint and provides a competitive advantage in the market,” says Huy Nguyen, Sales Director, SSAB Europe.

This agreement marks a new step in the long-standing partnership between Snop and SSAB that comprises a variety of actions addressing all aspects of the development chain, from sales to production to testing and customer experience as an example of inter-company cooperation in the world of steel products.

Traditional steel production represents a significant source of global CO₂ emissions, By changing the way steel is produced, SSAB wants to cut emissions and create a fossil-free value chain with customers and partners, regardless of whether the raw material is scrap or iron ore.

In 2021, SSAB produced the world’s first fossil-free steel as a proof of concept using HYBRIT® technology. The revolutionary steelmaking technology using hydrogen reduced sponge iron, removes the primary source of CO₂ emissions with water as by-product, instead of CO₂. Since then, a number of pilot deliveries have been made to customers in different industries. When available in commercial volumes, the fossil carbon emissions in SSAB’s production of SSAB Fossil-free™ steel are targeted to be less than 0.05 kg CO2_e/kg steel in Scope 1, 2 and for iron ore upstream Scope 3, of the GHG Protocol.

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SSAB and Snop
From left to right : Pierre Mainguy, Purchasing Director, Snop; Huy Nguyen, Sales Director, SSAB Europe, Hervé Daenens, Vice President Operations, Snop, Svante Fält, Technical Development Manager, SSAB Europe, Tony Harris, Head of Sales and Business Development, SSAB Europe.

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Hervé Daenens, Vice President Operations, Snop and Tony Harris, Head of Sales and Business Development, SSAB Europe agreeing on the fossil-free steel partnership.