Fortescue Metals Group has marked its 20-year anniversary by changing its branding, while its green energy arm has acquired the owner of a proposed green hydrogen project in the US.
Fortescue Metals Group has marked its 20-year anniversary by changing its branding to Fortescue, while its green energy arm has acquired the owner of a proposed green hydrogen project in the US.
Under the branding changes, Fortescue will operate with two divisions: Fortescue Metals and Fortescue Future Industries, to be known as Fortescue Energy.
Its six-member leadership team includes Fiona Hick, as chief executive of the metals business, and Mark Hutchinson as chief executive of FFI (Energy).
Both will continue to report to executive chairman and major shareholder Andrew Forrest.
The new brand will not immediately affect the name of the ASX-listed parent company, which will continue for now as Fortescue Metals Group.
The group said the single brand would represent being a unified global green energy and metals company.
It launched a new website today to promote the Fortescue brand, though investors and analysts will continue to be challenged by the dramatic pivot from a pure-play mining company to a much more complex organisation.
Meanwhile, Mr Hutchinson announced today the group is investing $US24 million ($A35 million) to acquire a 100 per cent interest in Phoenix Hydrogen Hub, LLC (PHH).
This is the group’s first major investment in the US following the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which provides large subsidies to new projects in sectors like critical minerals and green energy.
PHH plans to develop a green hydrogen project in the city of Buckeye, near Phoenix, Arizona.
Phase one of the PHH project is planned to be an 80-megawatt electrolyser and liquefaction facility, capable of producing up to 12,000 tonnes of green hydrogen annually.
It is anticipated the PHH project will go to the FMG board for a final investment decision this year with first production expected by the middle of this decade.
That would make it one five FFI projects the group aims to approve before the end of 2023.
Other advanced projects are in locations as diverse as Norway, Texas and Queensland.
Mr Hutchinson said FFI was strengthening its position as a leading global developer of green energy production and technology.
“This is an exciting opportunity to work towards a fast-moving project that will lead the way in the US, creating new green industrial jobs for Americans, while also helping to reduce emissions once production begins,” he said.
“The US is now one of the best places in the world to do this, with the Inflation Reduction Act making it an ideal place to invest in green energy.”
FFI is acquiring PHH from an affiliate of Arizona truck manufacturer Nikola Corporation.
Nikola will be a potential buyer of green hydrogen to support the deployment of its heavy-duty, zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles and hydrogen refuelling stations in California and the US south-west.
“Nikola’s priority is to see more zero-emission trucks on the road and this investment by FFI will greatly strengthen one of the country’s first and most important hydrogen hubs,” Nikola Corporation president and CEO, Michael Lohscheller, said.
Fortescue said the large-scale deployment of hydrogen as a zero-emission fuel into the transportation sector in the US was expected to benefit from the hydrogen tax credit in the Inflation Reduction Act and state level incentives such as the Low Carbon Fuel Standard in California.
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