The Ballet of the Construction cranes can be seen from afar on the road, piercing the forest of birch and pines. On site, construction machines crisscross the ground tracks of several hundred meters long, lifting the dust by transporting rubble and materials. Welcome to Boden, in the far north of Sweden, on the site of the future “green” steel of the Stegra group.
The city of almost 30,000 inhabitants is located 900 kilometers from Stockholm and 300 kilometers from the polar circle. Without much tourist charm, according to travel guides, it is best known for its military fort, one of the last of Lapland, active during the two world wars and closed in the 2000s. It may be tomorrow for its steelworks, installed on the outskirts of the city, the first built ex nihilo on the whole European continent for half a century.
Created in 2020, the start-up H2 Green Steel launched the Boden site two years later. She took her new name, Stegra, in 2024, which means “raising” in Swedes, as a symbol of the rise of her project. The industrial issue is high: in the event of success, Boden's steelworks can become the showcase of the successful energy transition in European steel, or be synonymous, in the event of failure, a new Swedish industrial mirage after the bankruptcy of the Northvolt electric battery manufacturer in March, the most important in the economic history of the country.
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Source: Lemonde