Thyssenkrupp's New Hydrogen Company Floats at $2.8 Billion

Written by Martin Lynch, European News Editor for Industrial Info (Galway, Ireland)--Thyssenkrupp's (Essen) new hydrogen spin-off company, thyssenkrupp nucera, has been valued at 2.5 billion euro (US$2.8 billion) after a successful first day of trading, thanks largely to a number of major European and global contracts in recent months.

The company, a joint venture from Thyssenkrupp and Italy's De Nora (Milan), was successfully floated on the Frankfurt stock exchange. The initial public offer (IPO) raised more than 520 million euro (US$578 million) for the new company. thyssenkrupp nucera has been busy filling its order books over the past year with a backlog worth 1.4 billion euro (US$1.6 billion). Contracted projects, which will use the company's 20-megawatt (MW) electrolysis alkaline water electrolysis (AWE) modules called "scalum", will have a combined installed electrolysis capacity of more than 3 gigawatts (GW). They include one of the world's biggest planned electrolysis plants in Saudi Arabia --NEOM--with a capacity of more than 2 GW. Industrial Info reported recently that Saudi Arabia had secured full financing of US$8.4 billion to advance its NEOM hydrogen plant, the world's largest utility-scale, commercially-based hydrogen facility powered by renewable energy. For additional information, see June 16, 2023, article--Saudi's $8 Billion NEOM Hydrogen Project Secures Full Funding.

In the AWE business field alone, thyssenkrupp nucera expects sales of up to 700 million euro (US$778 million) in the coming fiscal year 2023/24. Industrial Info is tracking the company's 200-MW plant for oil major Shell Plc (NYSE:SHEL) (London, England) in the port of Rotterdam. The Holland Hydrogen I project will be Europe's largest renewable hydrogen plant once operational in 2025. In May, the developer behind one of the first large-scale green steel plants in Europe ordered up to 35 electrolyzers from thyssenkrupp nucera for its plant in Boden, northern Sweden. H2 Green Steel said the hydrogen will be used to produce 2.5 million tons of green steel per year, with a planned ramp-up to 5 million tons by 2030. Up to 700 MW capacity of the AWE modules will be delivered. Operations are planned to start at the end of 2025, with a scheduled ramp-up in 2026.

Miguel Ángel López Borrego, chief executive officer of Thyssenkrupp, said: "We achieved our goal and successfully floated our hydrogen business in a challenging capital market environment. This gives the company sufficient financial scope to grow further and expand its leading market position in the production of green hydrogen. We are convinced of the considerable development potential of thyssenkrupp nucera and will support the growth of the company, which is essential for the decarbonization of many industries, in the long term."

thyssenkrupp nucera also announced recently that an unnamed U.S. company has reserved production of the scalum electrolyzers in the high "multi-hundred megawatt range for a planned green hydrogen project". After H2 Green Steel, it is the second company to use the company's new supply agreement option to reserve capacity for later supply. "With our reservation agreement to reserve our production capacities, we enable companies to plan with greater certainty for projects in the megawatt and gigawatt range," said Dr. Christoph Noeres, head of green hydrogen at thyssenkrupp nucera. "In North America, the hydrogen economy is picking up speed and will certainly set the global pace in the coming years."

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