Klöckner & Co launches new Nexigen® brand and delivers first green steel to Mercedes-Benz

• Klöckner & Co markets sustainable metal and service solutions under new Nexigen® brand
• Portfolio includes low-carbon steel and metal products together with logistics and circularity solutions and consulting services
• With the launch of the new brand, Klöckner & Co delivered the first roughly 20 tons of significantly carbon-reduced (‘Pro’ category) green steel to Mercedes-Benz

Duisburg, Germany, September 13, 2022 – Klöckner & Co has launched the new Nexigen® brand bringing together the entire portfolio of sustainable products and services. Under the Nexigen® brand, the Company now provides transparent, carbon-reduced solutions in the three categories of materials, processing and logistics. In this way, Klöckner & Co assists customers with the reliable procurement of green steel and metal products, providing full transparency about their carbon footprint from resource extraction to production. Combined with a comprehensive range of logistics solutions, circularity solutions and Sustainability Advisory Services, Klöckner & Co supports its customers in building sustainable supply chains. To mark the brand launch, Klöckner & Co subsidiary Becker Stahl-Service handed over the first coil of green steel to longstanding customer Mercedes-Benz AG.

Guido Kerkhoff, CEO of Klöckner & Co SE: “With the launch of Nexigen®, we are underscoring our ambition as a pioneer of a sustainable steel industry and are taking the next step. Our customers are increasingly asking for sustainable steel solutions. Nexigen® means they can easily and reliably source green steel and metal products. With additional advisory services, we are also helping them to make their supply chains significantly more sustainable and make their progress in decarbonization transparent. This is unique in our industry. We are delighted to have been able to hand over the first green steel to our longstanding customer Mercedes-Benz and to support the company in achieving its sustainability goals.”

New brand for implementation of sustainability strategy

With Nexigen®, Klöckner & Co is taking an important further step in implementing its corporate strategy, “Klöckner & Co 2025: Leveraging Strengths,” which places the central focus on sustainability as a growth driver. As of today, customers can find out more about the Nexigen® brand on the Group companies’ websites. Klöckner & Co has developed a metric for categorizing green steel, which serves as a guide and creates transparency for determining the carbon footprint of customers’ end products. In addition to green products, Nexigen® also includes Klöckner & Co’s sustainable logistics solutions, circularity solutions and Sustainable Advisory Services. Together with the market launch of Nexigen®, Klöckner & Co is also investing in further training of the workforce, and has already trained 700 sales staff to advise on and sell sustainable products and services. With the new brand initially being rolled out in the European Union, customers in the USA, Switzerland and the UK will also be able to purchase initial quantities of green steel from Klöckner & Co and its country organizations before the end of this year.

First green steel coil delivered to Mercedes-Benz AG

The first quantity of green steel under the Nexigen^® brand has been secured by Mercedes-Benz AG. On a visit to administrative premises of Mercedes-Benz AG, representatives of Becker Stahl-Service symbolically handed over the first coil to the Mercedes-Benz AG procurement team. The coil weighing around 20 tons is significantly carbon-reduced steel that corresponds to the “Pro” category in Klöckner & Co’s proprietary metric for green steel. Emissions from resource extraction through to production totaled less than 500 kg of carbon per ton of steel – that’s over 80% less than the average of around 2.5 tons of carbon per ton of steel via the blast furnace route. The delivery went to the Mercedes-Benz Kuppenheim plant. Mercedes-Benz plans to increasingly shift from conventional steel to green steel in raw material procurement under the company’s “Ambition 2039”.

Jochen Forstner, Director Procurement & Supplier Quality Mercedes-Benz Cars, Body-In-White, Raw Material & Strategy: “In our transformation process towards CO₂-neutrality at Mercedes-Benz, our Ambition 2039, we include the entire value chain – also partners and suppliers. As part of this, the transformation of the steel industry is essential to the decarbonization of our products. This is why we are working together with our partners for the goal of a green steel supply chain. We are happy that Klöckner & Co, as a reliable supplier through Becker Stahl-Service, has now enabled us to source green steel and is supporting us on this path.”