Alternative funding will enable New Port of Luleå: “We will quadruple the capacity and become the second largest port in Sweden”

The port of Luleå is going be the second largest port in Sweden. To enable this, Port of Luleå is now looking for an operator and for external funding.
The volume of goods in the port will increase from eight to approximately 32 million tonnes per year.

- We are looking for an established actor to finance, build, operate, and maintain the logistical hub of the green industrial revolution in the northern parts of Sweden, says Anders Dahl, CEO, Port of Luleå.

The current public port of Luleå will be upgraded with new infrastructure in the form of all-weather terminals where entering ships can be loaded and unloaded indoors, climate-controlled storage facilities for steel coils, known as “coil hotels”, and railway connections. Parallel to this is the ongoing project Malmporten, the largest dredging project in Swedish history. The projectwill make the fairway passable for larger ships with bigger draughts of up to 160 000 tonnes in comparison to today’s 55 000 tonnes, and construct a new dock, measuring 1 068 metres in length. Overall, these investments amount to several billion SEK. The value of the Malmporten project alone is in the range of SEK 2.7 billion.

To enable the New Port of Luleå, Port of Luleå is currently searching for an external partner, an operator, who will not only build, operate and maintain the new port, but also finance it. Anders Dahl, CEO, Port of Luleå:

- We are now in the process of submitting a formal interest inquiry to the market, a so-called RFI, partly to scan the market for interested parties, partly to gain a better understanding of what the market can offer in terms of financing, construction, operation, and maintenance. The plan is to give notice of a procurement during the summer.

The New Port of Luleå will be the logistical hub of the green industrial revolution, which is taking place within Luleå Industripark and in the region in general. It is here that goods will be shipped to and from the new fossil-free industrials; H2 Green Steel, LKAB, SSAB and several other big firms. There are also plans for a major artificial fertilizer plant, which the Spanish-based Fertiberia plans to construct, and a factory for the production of battery anodes, which Talga is expected to build. 

- We see great opportunities for a strong, long-term expansion of the New Port of Luleå. Once this green industrial cluster has been realized, it will attract interest from other actors. That is what we have learnt from other strong cluster formations driving world-leading development, Dahl states.

The RFI concerns, inter alia, all-weather terminals, coil hotels, railway connections, and the current port facilities of the public port. The idea is to engage in discussions with interested parties as soon as possible after the publication of the RFI in the middle of February.

- We are looking for a stable and long-term solution that is profitable for the operator, attractive to customers, and suitable for us. We will be thorough in the discussions with interested parties to ensure we reach the most optimal solution possible, concludes Dahl.