High strength steel in timber trailers
Fact sheet about environmental benefits of high strength steel in timber trailers.
In English.
2015. 2 s.
A large share of the timber transportation in Sweden takes place by truck. Through using high strength steels instead of conventional steels it is possible to produce lighter and more fuel-efficient vehicles. What is more, the freight carrying capacity of the vehicles can be increased.
When the payload capacity increases, fewer transport journeys are required to transport a fixed amount of timber. This leads to large environmental savings over the useful life of the timber truck due to reduced fuel consumption.
Calculations show that upgrading the steel in the Swedish fleet of timber vehicles, around 2 000 vehicles, can cut greenhouse gas emissions by about 50 000 tonnes carbon dioxide equivalent. This is, according to data from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and Transport Analysis, more or less the same as the annual emissions from 20 000 private cars in Sweden.
An upgrade to high strength steel would also mean that the fuel costs are reduced by SEK 250 million during the lifetime of these vehicles.
The fact sheet is a summery from a case study within the environmental research program The Steel Eco-Cycle.
Learn more about the program.
