Procurement of dredging suspended

The reason is that the tenders received are too high and exceed what they have budgeted for.

"The decision to cancel procurements within the Malmporten project is taken because the bids received have a higher price picture than expected. “The Malmporten project is important for the development of shipping and together we are now taking a new approach,” says Joel Smith, Director of Infrastructure at the Swedish Maritime Administration (Sjöfartsverket) and Anders Dahl, CEO of the Port of Luleå, in a press release.

In the next step, they will analyze which measures will provide the greatest benefit at the lowest cost, and as soon as possible get started again with the work on the fairway and the port. Dredging is scheduled to continue this year and be completed by 2028, but there is now a risk that the project will be delayed as dredging can only take place during the summer months.

The Malmporten project consists of dredging the fairway into the port of Luleå and a new deepwater port in Luleå. This is required so that the increasingly large cargo ships can enter the port of Luleå in the future. Preparatory dredging in the fairway began last summer.

The total cost of the Malmporten project is approximately SEK 5 billion. The Swedish Transport Administration is responsible for SEK 2.3 billion of this. The municipality of Luleå, through the port company Luleå Hamn, is responsible for SEK 2.7 billion, which includes dredging of the fairway and a new deep port with land surfaces and infrastructure.

The project is co-financed by the EU from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), which contributes up to SEK 28 million, and by the Northern Dimension Partnership on Transport and Logistics (NDPTL) via the Nordic Investment Bank.

Lennart Håkansson

editor@northswedenbusiness.com