Railway works affect LKAB's deliveries to SSAB

"We notice that it doesn't work and there are major disruptions. We don't always get the deliveries we need and have to buy ore from Canada and the US because we can't get transportation. Historically, we have not had to do this," SSAB's CEO Martin Lindqvist told Dagens Industri at the presentation of the interim report for the second quarter.

The reason, according to SSAB, is the lack of capacity on the Malmbanan, which is exacerbated by the Swedish Transport Administration's many track works this summer. The problems are also increased by LKAB's need to transport raw materials from the Svappavaara sorting plant to Kiruna. The fact that Kiruna needs more raw material is due to the major earthquake in 2020, which is still affecting production at the Kirunavaara mine.

"The ore line is not designed for this and is extremely sensitive to disruptions. It is also not the case that we have trains that can only be standing while waiting to run, says Niklas Johansson, Communications Director at LKAB to Norr Media.

Lennart Håkansson

editor@northswedenbusiness.com