The Green Transition|Norwegian Blastr Green Steel’s steel mill project found financiers for the project development phase. In the spring, a US veteran of the steel industry became the CEO.
Norwegian Blastr Green Steel’s giant hydrogen and steel plant project planned for Inkoosee has now taken a step forward.
The company announced on Wednesday that it has collected the first round of funding from investors, which will finance the development of the project to such a stage that funding can be applied for the actual construction phase.
The US conglomerate Cargill, the German steel merchant Interfer Group, Vanir Green Industries, which founded Blastr, and the Finnish state capital investor Tesi participated in the financing round.
Funding round Blastr does not say the euro amount. Investment director of Tes Esa Koponen tells HS that Tesi will finance the project development phase at this stage with a maximum of five million euros.
“The financing of projects like this typically proceeds step by step. With the help of this funding, the project is to be developed to the stage where the next funding round can be applied for,” he says.
It means, for example, assessing environmental impacts and applying for permits.
Koponen does not comment on the probability of the final implementation of the billion-dollar project.
“At least we cannot afford to lose any such significant investment in Finland. On the list of green investments planned here, Blastr is right at the top,” says Koponen.
According to Koponen, the state capital investor wants to be an anchor investor in exactly this type of projects to ensure the progress of the projects.
Norwegian Blastr Green Steel announced in January 2023 that it plans to invest up to four billion euros in Inkoose in the production of hydrogen produced with renewable electricity and the low-emission steel produced with it.
The plans raised doubts, among other things, because the stated schedule seemed completely unrealistic, and the company had no background in the steel industry and no turnover.
The project schedule has been postponed a couple of times since then. The factory is said to be in production by the end of the decade.
And in the background, the project is indeed progressing. The environmental impact assessment was started last August, and the company’s management team has been appointed throughout the year.
In April, the company got a new CEO, whose office is in Finland. In the United States On Mark Bula has long experience in both the steel industry and startups. Until last September, he was the commercial director of the Swedish green steel startup H2 Green Steel.
Since the beginning of this year, Bula has served as an advisor to the board of Vanir Green Industries, the founder of Blastr.
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