Sandvik divests metal powder business unit to Swedish investment firm Mimir

Sandvik has signed an agreement to sell its Additive Manufacturing business unit to Mimir, a global investment firm headquartered in Sweden. The unit, which sits within Sandvik’s Machining business area, produces metal powders for additive manufacturing, metal injection molding, and hot isostatic pressing, as well as controlled expansion alloys for specialized industrial applications. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, pending customary regulatory approvals.

The sale will result in an impairment loss of approximately SEK 230 million (approximately $22 million), primarily attributable to property, plant, and equipment. Sandvik classified the business as assets held for sale on its balance sheet, and the impairment—which carries no cash impact—will be recorded as an item affecting comparability in the company’s Q2 profit and loss statement.

“This divestment is intended to better position the Additive Manufacturing business for its next growth phase, and we believe the new owner will provide the platform and dedicated focus needed to further develop the business towards its full potential,” said Stefan Widing, President and CEO of Sandvik.

The end of a long exit

The Mimir deal closes a process that Sandvik began in earnest in 2023, when the company said it would concentrate its materials activities through its Wolfram division while initiating a strategic review of its AM services business, which included metal AM service provider BEAMIT. In 2024, Sandvik relinquished its minority stake in BEAMIT—a move that contributed to BEAMIT’s subsequent bankruptcy—and began accelerating its exit from the sector.

Sandvik had invested significantly over several years to build a position in metal AM materials but ran into a structural problem familiar to large industrial conglomerates entering the AM supply chain: the volumes required by AM applications remain far smaller than those generated by conventional metalworking markets, and the cost base of a Western producer does not scale down easily. Running a dedicated powder business for AM at the margins and volumes the market currently demands proved difficult to justify within a company of Sandvik’s size.

A more competitive powder market

The timing of the divestment also reflects a broader shift in the metal powder supply landscape. European and Asian manufacturers have entered the market in growing numbers over the past several years, and competition from Chinese producers—who operate at significantly lower cost structures—has put additional pressure on established Western suppliers. For Sandvik, holding a subscale powder operation in that environment was increasingly hard to defend strategically.

Mimir now takes on a business with established production capabilities and an existing customer base across multiple powder metallurgy applications. Whether the dedicated ownership structure will be enough to address the underlying market dynamics remains to be seen.

As with other large players in the polymer AM business that have recently divested, such as BASF and Braskem, it is more convenient for a company the size of Sandvik to monitor smaller companies as they build their AM businesses and re-enter the market through an acquisition, if and when the conditions are in place.