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Booming construction industry and interesting ONS coming up

June 8, 2016 News

Welcome to the latest business news from Norway!

In this brief weekly newsletter we would like to tell you about our local activity and success stories here in Norway, while giving you a quick update on the Norwegian industry news, latest business opportunities and coming events. Feel free to follow us on twitter as well @AnttiMakikyro and @FinnishPartners.

The Royal Family is waving to thousands of people during the national day in Norway. People are looking very nice in heir national costumes.

Finnish Partners stories

Last two months have been flying with many clients visiting in Norway and different national holidays during this time. I still have to say though that 17.mai (Norwegian National Day) is a fantastic celebration and you should experience it at least once. Maybe not too much business done on that day, but you get to see many happy Norwegians.

The industry is not maybe smiling everyday here but is very interesting. Construction industry is doing very well and especially companies within infrastructure are living their prime times. Offshore and maritime industry might be the more unsecure one but we still get news about big contracts everyday. So just remember to book your trip to ONS the soonest if haven’t done so. Hotels are impossible to get at this time so I would suggest using AirBnB or the booking through ONS administration. They have been usually very good at getting an accommodation for visitors.

Offshore industry has seen some interesting transactions during last months and this definitely means that companies are becoming stronger for the future market development. We have to remember that the projects are very large as well and contracts are worth of billions of kronors. Talking to the industry here it seems quite challenging situation with potential projects and opportunities. Either they are thinking about laying off people…. Or in the same time they need to recruit if they are getting even one project. And many of them are same time bidding for several projects. So many projects are happening and someone will be getting them. That’s why it is important to spend time on the market and get to know those companies.

Therefore ONS will be very exciting this year. Either we are seeing a bit more quiet exhibition or there will be many new announcements from the market. Remember also that there is Offshore Technology days in Bergen in October and again Norshipping exhibition in Oslo in May. Great opportunities to meet with companies.

Subcontractors are very big and important part of the projects in Norway. Without good suppliers the companies would not be successful here and therefore they are looking for new good partners all the time.

Construction industry in other hand is really booming. You might have read some news that Norwegian projects are giving work for Finnish laid off workers. So this was definitely great news for Ruukki employees, but same time the construction industry is looking for new subcontractors all the time. Finnish Partners were recruiting interior suppliers for AF Gruppen’s mega projects regarding a new national museum, Munch museum and Deichmanske library. These projects are so big that they wanted to invite all subcontractors to present themselves in their supplier day. We got four companies from Finland but didn’t like to see that other countries were highly more present. So we have to work on this and get Finnish companies to understand the potential here.

Infrastructure investments are sky high here and according to the new national transportation plan some €100 billion will be invested until 2029. I was talking about these opportunities in Finpro’s Intelligent Transportation systems and Mobility as a service day in Helsinki and you can find the presentations here.

At the moment Finnish Partners are heavily involved in construction projects, shipbuilding, offshore projects, different technologies (specially health tech) and looking for new companies to be presented into those projects in Norway.

You know you are an tourist during the national day when not wearing the bunad (national costume)

You know you are a tourist during the national day when not wearing the bunad (national costume)

So let me know if you have any questions regarding upcoming ONS or any other projects in the market. The month of July will be a bit more quiet in Norway as well as it is in Finland. I am most likely visiting the eastern part of Finland at the end of June and visiting companies there. Please find many interesting projects from below links as well!