Customers, agility and employees
Customer’s first choice
A strong focus on high service levels helped us achieve good order levels in the parts, services and consumables business. We work to ensure that parts and services are available on a timely basis and develop tools, such as the predictive maintenance Remote Monitoring Service, to help customers optimize uptime.
Sandvik continued to leverage the ground support capabilities that came with the acquisition of DSI Underground in 2021. In 2023 we acquired Norgalv, a state-of-the-art galvanizing plant based in Canada to strengthen the overall supply offered by DSI Underground within the North American market. To better serve mining customers in North America, we are also investing over USD 50 million in a facility in Elko, Nevada, our largest US facility to date. We invested in warehouse management systems globally to support our customers in a faster and more efficient way.
We understand our customers’ needs and partner with our customers on their digitalization, automation and electrification journeys. We secured several large orders, including an order from Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, to supply AutoMine® fleet automation system and six autonomous loaders to Chile. This is a continuation of our long-standing partnership with Codelco on automation solutions and supports their goal to operate the world’s most automated and digitalized mine. The 19-unit BEV fleet, ordered for Rana Gruber’s mine in northern Norway, will support its goal to operate the world’s first carbon-free iron ore mine by the end of 2025.
Agile through cycle
Despite inflation and logistical challenges, we maintained profitability through our ability to be agile and we mitigated inflation with price compensation. A large share of our production is outsourced, for increased flexibility, and we have been very cautious about increasing employment costs in general. The restructuring program initiated in 2022 is progressing according to plan and will lead to annualized savings of SEK 100 million with a full run-rate in 2025.
While recent supply chain issues have started to normalize, we remain very focused on this area. We chartered a RoRo vessel in Finland, for example, to secure customer deliveries.
Employer of choice
We are focused on improving openness and communication to ensure that all employees understand where we are heading.
Through a six-month reverse mentoring program, several members of the extended business area management team were matched with a younger, less experienced employee, to challenge their way of thinking and encourage new ideas. A number of female employees were selected to participate in the International Women in Mining mentorship program, designed to empower women to overcome professional challenges and build confidence for achievement and industry leadership. Through the program, our employees partner with senior industry leaders (male and female) from the global mining industry.
There is a shortage of mining engineers in the industry and we need more skills related to electrification, digitalization and automation. We are attracting such competencies through close cooperation with universities and schools, particularly at locations near our operations.
Safety is our number one priority and we improved our safety performance through a number of local initiatives in our efforts to ensure zero harm.
Psychological safety is also high on our agenda, and was one of the topics included in the 2023 Global Learning Network program agenda. The safety leadership handbook at our Tampere (Finland) facility includes a section on psychological safety and mental wellbeing. The Load and Haul division received the 2023 DIamond (Diversity & Inclusion) Award for their project, a psychological safety film.
