MOSCOW (MRC) -- Australian Fortescue Metals Group said on Monday it intends to sign a long-term deal to supply German chemicals maker Covestro AG with "green hydrogen" and its derivatives, reported Reuters.
Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) will supply the equivalent of up to 100,000 tonnes of green hydrogen per year once the deal is formalised, it said on its website.
"This collaboration reinforces that green hydrogen is a practical, implementable solution for a range of difficult-to-decarbonise industries," FFI Chief Executive Officer Julie Shuttleworth said.
Under the deal, green hydrogen - a clean-burning fuel made by using energy from renewable sources to electrolyse water - will potentially be supplied to Covestro in Asia, North America and Europe from 2024 onwards.
Fortescue, which aims to become carbon-neutral by 2030, has signed a string of projects through FFI over the past year to underline its push to transition from a pure-play iron ore producer to a green energy firm.
FFI expects to spend between USD400 million and USD600 million this financial year to develop green trains, trucks and shipping, as welll as decarbonisation technologies. It also expects to expand its green hydrogen production to 15 million tonnes per year by 2030.
As MRC informed before, in April 2021, DSM completed the sale of the resins & functional materials businesses to Covestro for EUR1.6 billion (USD1.9 billion), including EUR1.4 billion in cash.
We remind that Covestro closed the sale of its European polycarbonates (PC) sheets business to the Munich-based Serafin Group effective January 2, 2020. This includes key management and sales functions throughout Europe as well as production sites in Belgium and Italy.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated consumption of PC granules (excluding imports and exports to/from Belarus) decreased in the first eleven months of 2021 by 11% year on year due to a major fall of imports and higher exports. Thus, overall estimated consumption in Russia totalled 74,300 tonnes in January-November 2021 versus 83,600 tonnes a year earlier.
Covestro (formerly Bayer MaterialScience) is an independent subgroup within Bayer. It was created as part of the restructuring of Bayer AG from the former business group Bayer Polymers, with certain of its activities being spun off to Lanxess AG. Covestro manufactures and develops materials such as coatings, adhesives and sealants, polycarbonates (CDs, DVDs), polyurethanes (automotive seating, insulation for refrigerating appliances) etc. With 2020 sales of EUR 10.7 billion, Covestro has 33 production sites worldwide and employs approximately 16,500 people (calculated as full-time equivalents).
MRC