Snow warnings for central and western Sweden 

Sweden’s state weather forecaster SMHI has issued an orange weather warning for heavy snowfall from Gothenburg right across central Sweden to Norrköping, south of Stockholm. 

The orange warning, which means there is “a large risk of disruption” to services such as public transport, came as SMHI predicted as much as 20cm of snow in some areas on Tuesday morning. 

“The largest amount of snow is expected in parts of Västra Götaland and Östergötland, where more than 20cm could come by this evening,” SMHI meteorologist Mattias Lind wrote in a comment on the agency’s website. 

He said that the snowfall would be both “persistant and profuse”, and be combined with powerful gusts of wind from the northwest. 

The agency has also issued an orange warning for flooding around the Tämnarån river in the Uppsala region. On Wednesday, temperatures will drop and on Thursday more snow is expected in Götaland, turning to rain on Friday, with snow expected in Svealand around Stockholm and in the south of Norrland. 

Swedish vocabulary: ymnig – profuse 

House prices rise for third month in a row 

Residential property prices have risen in Sweden for the third month in a row, leading SBAB economist Robert Boije to call an end to Sweden’s house price correction.

The price of detached houses rose by 2.2 percent, while the price of apartments rose by 1.2 percent. 

“This suggests that the market has hit the bottom,” SBAB’s chief economist Robert Boije said. “The outlook is bright. This is the third month in a row with rising prices. If nothing unexpected happens, the worst is over.” 

Swedish vocabulary: att bottna – to hit the bottom (of market price trends). 

Record bankruptcies in March 

Sweden suffered a record number of bankrupcties in March, with the number of businesses going bust up 36 percent compared to the same month last year, and seven out of ten business sectors affected. 

“This long-lasting high level of bankruptcies in many sectors, including the building industry and hotels and restaurants, will have significant consequences for unemployment statistics for sectors where redundancies are increasing,” the credit agency which provided the statistics, UC, said in a statemennt. 

The largest increase in bankruptcies came in the building sector, where the number of businesses going bust doubled. In the retail sector, bankrupcties increased by 11 percent. 

At the same time, redundancies as a result of bankruptcies grew by 30 percent across Sweden. 

Swedish vocabulary: motsvarande – respective 

SSAB to build 4.5 billion euro green steel plant in Luleå 

Swedish steel giant SSAB has announced plans to build a new steel plant in Luleå for 52 billion kroner (€4.5 billion), with the new plant expected to produce 2.5 million tons of steel a year. 

“The conversion in Luleå is a milestone on our journey to fossil-free steel production,” the company’s CEO, Martin Lindqvist, said in a press release. “We will remove seven percent of Sweden’s carbon dioxide emissions, strengthen our competitiveness and secure jobs with the most cost-effective and sustainable sheet metal production in Europe.”

The new steel mill is expected to be in use at the end of 2028.

Swedish vocabulary: en milstolpe – a milestone