Last year was the best year of the decade for deliveries from LKAB. A total of 26 Mt of upgraded iron ore products in the form of pellets and fines were shipped from LKAB’s harbours. This is the company’s highest delivery tonnage so far during the 2000s. 2010 was a record year for pellet production. LKAB now delivers only upgraded iron ore products. “2010 saw enormous demand for LKAB’s products and the new, climate-smart LKAB Green Pellets are winning market shares. If our capacity had been higher, we could have delivered even more pellets. Therefore, we are continuing to invest in expansion,” says Lars-Eric Aaro, President and CEO of LKAB.LKAB’s record deliveries in 2010 are fully in line with the company’s determined and strategic multi-billion-kronor investments of recent years. The pelletising plants, including the KK4 plant in Kiruna and MK3 in Malmberget, now enable LKAB to upgrade all ore from its mines to niche products for production of high-performance steels.

A new harbour facility in Narvik, with increased capacity for shipping and with reduced environmental impact, was inaugurated just over a year ago. New energy-efficient locomotives and new 100-t cars specially designed for cold-climate conditions helped us to exceed our delivery targets in 2010, despite periods of severe weather conditions (see IM’s LKAB Great Mines articcles published last year).

The only major disruption in production was due to a lightning fire that started in a transformer station near Torneträsk on the Ore Railway in early-July. This event literally overheated the already strained traffic situation on the Ore Railway. LKAB’s deliveries dropped considerably until normal traffic volumes could be resumed in November 2010.

In May 2010 LKAB opened its first new iron ore mine since the 1960s, the open pit mine at Gruvberget in Svappavaara. LKAB plans to open two more open pit mines in the Svappavaara area before 2015 with an aim to reaching an annual delivery capacity of 37 Mt of finished products.