Maintenance in SSAB’s unique factory area

SSAB is a steelmaker with global operations and a leading supplier of high-strength steel. In addition to the factory in Raahe in Finland, which is the largest, the company has production facilities in Sweden and the US. The factory area in Raahe covers a significant section of the town and extends over a vast area. Covering over 500 hectares, it includes 40 kilometres of roads and 30 kilometres of railways as well as a port, fire station, power plant and one of Finland’s largest laboratories.

Coor started providing property maintenance services at SSAB’s factory in Raahe in 2012, and different business models have been developed in collaboration with the customer since the start. Coor is responsible for preventive property maintenance and provides FM services as well as moving services.
“We do a lot of preventive maintenance: we inspect the buildings, repair minor faults immediately and submit reports on other problems,” says Tero Översti, Coor’s Service Manager.

In the factory area, there are 278 buildings with 8,000 doors, so there is no shortage of work. The tasks vary considerably, from welding doors to cleaning gutters and doing various installations.
“We appreciate Coor’s knowledge and experience. As the buildings are located in a factory area, there are many risk factors and the work is quite different from traditional property management,” says Pertti Viholainen, Real Estate Manager at SSAB.

Coor has been providing property services at SSAB’s production facility in Raahe since 2012, and the service model has been developed in collaboration with Coor. Coor is responsible for preventive property maintenance and provides FM services as well as moving services in Raahe’s unique factory area.

Coor’s contract with SSAB has a strong focus on sustainability. SSAB’s goal is to largely eliminate CO2 emissions from its production by 2030. This will require major changes as steelmaking is very energy-intensive. “Steelmaking is currently undergoing the biggest revolution since the invention of the melting furnace,” says Pertti Viholainen. A safe working environment is a fundamental requirement for everything SSAB does and the company has a strong focus on safety. The company’s continuous efforts to ensure safety through patrols, observations, communications about safety and training have paid off. The LTI ratio – the number of lost time injuries per million hours worked – has decreased continuously since the 1970s and reached an all-time low of 0.51 in 2021. “External service providers such as Coor are also increasingly involved in our efforts to ensure safety,” says Pertti Viholainen.