I agree that no winter tyres should wear out in a few weeks,unless you run from Kirkenes down to Malaga and back with them perhaps.I am merely challenging your statement that there are NO different compounds for different countries and conditions.If as you say you are a regular in Kiruna the you will have seen for yourself the difference in equipment up here.I live near to Kiruna.
When i first moved here i bought a set of Cooper studded tyres.They were a disaster.They are made for the North American market and are,for some reason harder rubber.Now i have Hakkappelitta 7 studded,a day and night difference,but i get less mileage out of them,maybe 2-3 Winters,but hey,what price safety.
Agreed, but I clearly stated I buy my tyres in Sweden. Tyres made for more tropical climates would be different (southern europe). I work up at Kiruna airport quite a bit in winter with the Met Office usually staying at 68 degrees B&B with Rolfe & Lin.
I wasn’t having a dig at you hutpik just the stupid remarks made by bigvern.
I Think the problem for european transport co’s is that they want to be so called ‘‘Winter legal’’ and still have high mileage from tyres.You see this here every Winter with the East and West european trucks up here with their '‘snowflake’'approved tyres when they are stuck everywhere.When i drove for Pilkington we had '‘Winter tyres’'I got nearly 400,000kms out of them with 1 cutting,but they were crap for ice driving,which is about 5 months worth of driving here.
After i had an accident in North Norway they changed thinking and i had Norwegian Winter tyres.I had to stay up in Scandinavia for 3 months changing trailers in Halmstad as the tyre wear was so severe if we went back down South due to the softness[and fantastic grip] of the tyres.
As an Essex boy myself i can say there’s a lot of difference between Clacton and Kiruna. 
hutpik:
When i first moved here i bought a set of Cooper studded tyres.They were a disaster.They are made for the North American market and are,for some reason harder rubber
same here, for this winter got a set of studded Firestones (Made in Indonesia 
) and they’re worthless. on my previous car I had locally manufactured recaps and even they were much better. due to the milder climate and smaller changes in elevation I think I’ll keep them though, will know better next time.
Do what i done with the Coopers.Take out the studs and use them as summer tyres.I got 3 summers out of them.
As stated, I know these tyres were crap that my then boss bought. I remember him moaning about the amount of wear. So if Mr know all says they never, he must be correct. Always one! 