Strength of Steel: Our latest Sustainability Report Welcome to the July edition of Ovako's Strength of Steel newsletter. If you have followed us for any length of time, you will know that sustainability is woven into the way we make decisions, invest, and show up for our people and communities every day.
This month, we are proud to share the highlights of our Sustainability Report for Financial Year 2025. This is our second ESRS (European Sustainability Reporting Standards)-inspired report.
Our purpose is clear: together we create steel for a decarbonized society, making sustainability embedded in our strategy, with our commitment dating back several decades. That long-standing commitment is the product of consistent, purposeful work across our sites and teams.
A landmark year for emissions
Through recent investments such as in hydrogen heating in Hofors, furnace upgrades in Boxholm, and the continued modernization of facilities across our Swedish and Finnish sites, we have demonstrated that environmental progress and operational excellence go hand in hand.
Nowhere is this more evident than at the Imatra mill, where a long-term, disciplined approach to investment has delivered a landmark result: the lowest CO₂ emissions in the site's history. In 2025, this site recorded emissions of just 231 kg of CO₂ per tonne of steel produced.
Since 2015, the Group has reduced our Scope 1 and 2 CO₂ emissions per tonne by 59 percent by electrifying our heat treatment as well as converting furnaces to fossil-free fuels.
We are committed to reducing our Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions per ton of hot-rolled steel by 25% by 2030 and by 75% by 2040 from a 2021 baseline, and ultimately to achieving net-zero emissions across the entire value chain by 2045.
Safety: a culture, not just a metric
With a Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) of 0.7, a significant reduction of 94% since 2015, we continue to set a high standard across our industry. Our LTI rate is below the global steel industry average, and both our LTI and TRI rates are better than those of the wider European steel sector.
Half a millennium of knowledge
2025 was a year of anniversaries. Ovako celebrated 20 years as a unified group, commemorating the 2005 merger of Fundia, Imatra Steel, and Ovako Steel that brought together complementary steelmaking strengths from across the Nordic region. But we did so with the awareness that the story we are telling stretches back not two decades, but five centuries.
When you consider the tenure of our people across all our sites, including the metallurgists, operators, engineers, and craftspeople who have dedicated substantial portions of their working lives to Ovako, the cumulative knowledge adds up to thousands of years of combined experience.
Recognized as an employer of choice
For the fourth year in a row, we have been nominated as Career Company in Sweden of the Year. The Career Company Award is based on an extensive review of nearly 2,000 students and young professionals and is given to organizations that offer unique career and development opportunities. Ovako has repeatedly been highlighted for its inclusive culture, strong sense of purpose, and its ability to combine technology, sustainability, and human development.
Sustainability leadership extends past the factory gate and into the hands of customers, into the products they build, and ultimately into the technologies that billions of people rely on every day.
Together we create steel for a decarbonized society
Vendela Stenius, Ovako Sustainability and Communication Specialist
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