Metso has signed an agreement to sell its Ferrous business to the SMS group. The businesses to be divested include, for example, travelling grate pelletizing and the Circored direct reduction process, as well as the associated service business. Approximately 180 employees, primarily based in Germany, India and China, are planned to join the SMS group at the closing of the transaction.
The closing of the transaction, which is subject to regulatory approvals, is expected to take place in the first quarter of 2026. The above-mentioned businesses, excluding the related services, are part of the businesses that have been reported as discontinued operations in Metso’s financial reporting since October 2023. The parties have decided not to disclose the value of the transaction. The transaction has no material profit and loss impact on Metso.
“SMS group is a great home for the ferrous technologies. It can offer both focus and scale for these businesses and hence capitalize on their full potential together with the strong team that is committed to further develop these technologies for the benefit of the customers,” says Piia Karhu, President of the Minerals business area.
“We are very pleased to add these future technologies to our product portfolio including the respective know-how carriers. The intention is for the CircoredTM technology to help us pursue our ambition to be a leading partner in the green transformation of the metals industry,” says Thomas Hansmann, Chief Technology Officer of SMS group.
Hydrogen-based direct reduction with low-cost fine ore
The Metso Circored process is a 100% hydrogen-based process for the direct reduction of fine ore. The flexible process, which produces high-metal direct reduced iron (DRI) or hot briquetted iron (HBI) that can be fed directly into an electric arc furnace, has proven its functionality and performance in an industrial-scale demonstration plant. Lurgi Metallurgie (acquired in 2001 from Outokumpu, merged with Metso in 2020), one of Metso's predecessor companies, developed this technology for the direct reduction of low-cost fine ores in the 1990s, patented it under the name Circored and built the first industrial-scale plant with a capacity of 500,000 tonnes per year in Trinidad. The plant was successfully commissioned in 1999. After a few technical modifications, stable operation was achieved and a total of 300,000 tonnes of high-quality HBI were produced.
Metso has also made additional decisions related to the rest of the Ferrous and Heat Transfer and Metals and Chemical Processing businesses that have been reported as discontinued operations. Metso will retain the businesses that have a positive market outlook and strong synergies with the company’s offering to the copper and battery minerals industries. Planning of wind down will be initiated for the rest of the businesses. The retained businesses will be reported as part of the Minerals segment.
Metso announced its decision to divest its Ferrous and Heat Transfer and Metals and Chemical Processing businesses in March 2023.
Source: Metso
