Category Archives: Sweden

Scana Steel

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The steel mill in Söderfors, Sweden dates back to an old anchor forge founded in 1667.
In the 19th century the forge was extended by steel making and rolling mills and became part of Söderforsgatan Bruks AB.
In 1907 the plant was sold to Stora Kopparberg Bergslagen.
The Söderfors works merged with Fagersta AB in 1982 and were taken over by the French Eramet Group ten years later.
The eastern part of the site (rolling mill, forge and foundry) were sold subsequently to Scana Steel and the Akers group.
Scana Steel today runs a medium section rolling mill, a hammer forge and a 1000 ton forging press in Söderfors.
Images now at Stahlseite.

Fagersta Stainless

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The rolling mill in Fagersta goes back to one of the oldest steel companies in Sweden, Fagersta Bruk which had it’s origins in an iron hammer founded in 1611.
Fagersta Bruk became a limited company in 1873 and developed into one of the largest steel producers in central Sweden.
After merging with the Sandvik steel group in 1978 the iron production in blast furnaces was closed down. In 1982 the steel melt shop No. 1 ceased production too and one year later the former Fagersta group was dismantled and it’s remaining parts were sold to different companies.
After the the melt shop No.2 was closed down in 1985 only the wire mill kept on producing steel in Fagersta. It is specialized in stainless steel wire and owned by Outokumpu and Sandvik Materials.
Images here.

Vargön Alloys

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No stainless steel without ferro chrom.
The last producer of such alloys in Sweden is Vargön Alloys in Vargön. The company was founded in 1874 as a pulp mill.
The first ferro-alloy smelter was installed in 1912 benefitting from the nearby hydroelectric power plants.
The pulp plant was sold in 1969.
In 1972 the world’s largest ferro alloys furnace (No.12) was installed. It has a daily capacity of up to 300 tons of ferro chrome.
From 1979 on the company was called Vargön Alloys AB.
Furnace No. 10 was refurbished for the production of ferrochrome in 1995 and has a capacitiy of 80 tons/d.
In 2008 the mill was bought by the Yildirim Group from Turkey.
Further images now at Stahlseite.

SSAB, Borlänge

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Photos of Swedens only wide hot strip mill now on my website.
The steel works in Borlänge, Sweden were built in 1872 by Stora Kopparbergs Bergslags AB and named Domnarvets Jernverk.
A blast furnace was installed in 1878 and in the following years the mill became one of Sweden’s largest steel producers.
In the late 1940ies Professor Bo Kalling developed his rotating KALDO (KAlling-DOmnarvet) converter in Borlänge. The first 30 ton vessel became operable in 1954 capable of converting Sweden’s high phosphorous iron into high quality steel.
Though the process competed against the LD-process from Austria for a while it disappeared later due to it’s high maintenance costs especially for the lining.
The last Kaldo converter at the Domnarvets works was shut down, together with the four remaining blast furnaces, in 1981. Three years before Borlänge had become part of the newly established Svenskt Stål Aktiebolag (SSAB).
In 1989 steel making (now in an electric arc furnace) ended at Domnarvet and only the 1650 mm hot strip mill, installed in 1961 by the Sack company from Düsseldorf, Germany, continued to operate.
It was constantly modernised and obtained a new roughing stand from SMS in 1999.
Borlänge is now part of SSAB’s EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) division and receives it’s primary material in the form of slabs from SSAB’s integrated works in Lulea and Oxelösund.

Swedish Steel

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One of the companies that helped to establish the legendary reputation of Swedish steel was Sandvik Jernwerks in Sandviken.
Images now at Stahlseite.
The plant was established in 1862 by the Swedish steel pioneer Göran Fredrik Göransson.
It was named Högbo Stal & Jernwerks.
Göransson was one of the first to purchase the British Bessemer patent and built a blast furnace and a Bessemer plant in Sandvik in 1863 already.
In 1868 the company was renamed and now called Sandvikens Jernwerks AB.
Rolling mills and forges were added in the following years.
In 1898 an open hearth shop was commissioned.
In 1908 four blast furnaces and six open hearth furnaces were in use.
Steel for rock drills became a major product.
The first electric arc furnace was installed in 1928.
The old Bessemer converters were shut down in 1947.
A new blooming mill was built in 1954 and a large electric arc furnace was taken into operation in 1959. The blast furnace department closed in 1960.
Today Sandvik Materials Technology is a subsidiary of the Sandvik group and produces high alloyed and stainless steel ingots, bars, strip and tubes.