Salt mines in north Europe were working 24/7 at the start of 2010 after record low temperatures and snowfall resulted in unpredicted demand for salt supplies to grit roads and highways.
As Germany experienced temperatures as low as -27.7¡C and France was hit with 40cm of snow and lows of -16¡C, the coldest temperatures were recorded in Norway which fell to sub-arctic levels of -41ºC.
The UK, which had temperatures similar to France, consumed 1m. tonnes of industrial grade salt with five weeks, the equivalent to one year’s worth of supplies used to deice roads.
As Europe froze, salt demand went into overdrive with Germany’s K+S increasing output by 20% from its potash mines.Peter Sherratt, general secretary of the UK based Salt Association told IM. “All of the pre-winter orders began in November 2009 ahead of the game, but in...