Curlew Steel Used in Oslo Multipurpose Hall

Recent Agreement between AF Offshore Decom and Nordic Circles for Steel Plate Delivery.

AF Offshore Decom recently signed an agreement with Nordic Circles for the delivery of a smaller batch of steel plates from hull sections on the vessel Curlew (approximately 20 tons, covering an area of 140-150 square meters).

The steel plates were cut and processed at AF Miljøbase Vats before being forwarded to Skanska Stålfabrikker, which produces approved products for the construction and civil engineering industry.

Both Statsbygg and the Oslo municipality have stipulated requirements for using recycled steel in two specific projects. The order is facilitated through Nordic Circles, which has developed a method for reclassifying the steel. AF Offshore Decom plans to allocate approximately 2 percent of the steel from Curlew for upcycling, while the remaining steel will be conventially recycled as scrap metal for melting. The research project “Maritime Steel Circularity” aims to find solutions to double this proportion in similar projects by 2030.

“The potential of recycling 25 percent of the maritime steel from decommissioned structures in Norway alone would yield over 20,000 tons of steel annually. Our goal is to make steel circularity so valuable that Norwegian shipyards can secure more contracts,” says John Jacobsen, Managing Director of Nordic Circles.

"This marks the first concrete delivery of steel recycling from AF Miljøbase Vats. Until now, we have recycled steel recovered as raw material for items like reinforcing bars or tunnel bolts through remelting. In this case, the metal is used directly with minor adjustments—a process known as “upcycling” in industry jargon", says Johannes Thrane, Chief Sustainability & Communications Officer and Head of Special Projects at AF Offshore Decom.

The Actors in the Delivery to Nordic Circles are Also Part of the Consortium that Received 171 Million NOK from the “Green Platform” for the Research Project “Maritime Metal Circularity” at the End of 2023.

The ambition of the research project is to establish a circular business model that can create a new market for upcycling. . Maritime metal is already utilized today in new products for construction and civil engineering. Over the past 20 years, AF Offshore Decom has ensured that approximately 400,000 tons of steel have been dismantled, sorted, and recycled as raw material—for example, in reinforcing bars or tunnel bolts—through remelting.

This initiative aims to make steel dismantling more valuable, allowing Norwegian shipyards to secure additional contracts. By directly utilizing maritime steel components without remelting, the process significantly reduces the CO2 footprint while increasing the overall value.