The steel company SSAB's multi-billion investment in a new fossil-free steel plant in Luleå has been criticized in the market and led to a sharp drop in the share price. Now the company has quietly withdrawn from negotiations for federal support in the United States for a similar plant in the country, according to newspaper reports. This is according to Dagens industri.

SSAB announced less than a year ago that the US Department of Energy had selected the company as a candidate to receive federal support of 500 million dollars. The aid was part of the Biden administration's industrial transformation program.

For SSAB, the aid, equivalent to over SEK 5 billion, would have been dedicated to building a new plant for fossil-free steel with Hybrit technology in Perry County, Mississippi.

Now the American newspaper Canary Media reports that SSAB has quietly withdrawn from the project. The company has not given any explanation as to why the negotiations for support have ended or what is happening with the plant in Perry County.