1800s The company was founded by
Göran Fredrik Göransson, who was an early user of the
Bessemer process. In 1857, he acquired rights to use the
patented process and initially applied it in a
blast furnace at Edsken,
Hofors Municipality. There, he became the first user of the process to achieve technically and commercially acceptable results. However, production at sufficient scale was not possible in the initial location. This prompted the foundation, in 1862, of a new company,
Högbo Stål & Jernverks AB, in a place that developed into the town of
Sandviken. Already in the 1860s, the company was exporting its products. The
United Kingdom,
Germany,
France and
Russia were important markets. In 1868, the company was reorganized as
Sandvikens Jernverks AB (the Sandviken Ironworks). The
Sandvik brand name was first used by the company at the
Centennial International Exhibition of 1876 in
Philadelphia. The following year, sales to the
United States began. In 1889, the company became the first Swedish manufacturer of seamless rolled
tubes, and over the following decade, it made substantial investments in methodology development and production facilities for seamless tubes. In 1914, the company established its first sales subsidiary outside of Sweden, in
Birmingham, UK. Further foreign subsidiaries were opened 1919 in the United States, 1923 in France, and 1926 in
Canada. In 1967, Sandvikens Jernverk had 40 subsidiaries and sales in 100 countries. The company changed its name to
Sandvik AB in 1972. In 2022, Sandvik bought the Australian mine planning software provider
Deswik. In August 2022, the business area
Sandvik materials technology, which included tubes,
strip steel, medical wires and Kanthal-brand heating technology products, was spun off as a separate company, publicly listed at Nasdaq Stockholm. The new company was named
Alleima, and its shares were distributed to the shareholders of Sandvik. In August 2023, Sandvik announced it had acquired the
Cambridge, Ontario-headquartered software development company, Postability. In September 2023, Sandvik adopted a revised visual identity, with a new logotype that contains different graphical elements than the previous one. == Operations ==