Blog

Great visibility for Finnish knowhow

September 20, 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.

Finnish Partners stories

His Majesty the King of Norway visited Nokia’s factory in Oulu where a few technology companies were showcasing their solutions.

His Majesty the King of Norway was visiting in Finland last week and finally Finland, with our great knowhow, got some great visibility in Norway. Although many visits and meetings were concentrating on health technology and gaming industry, the Finnish high technology definitely became noticed. High technology equals the quality in many cases and this is what we want to take forward in Norway as well.

I think we just have to learn to sell the quality and solutions better way. Often the quality solutions sound more expensive in first hand but usually it offers many cost savings in long run. This is something that we are working with in our everyday business and explaining to Norwegian industry how they can benefit working with quality Finnish companies.

This autumn has also been very exciting in that front with visits to different exhibitions like Nor-Fishing in Trondheim, ONS in Stavanger and seminars around digitalization of the industry and arctic business. Of course not to forget many exciting project meetings in Norway and even more interesting meetings with Finnish companies that we have great pleasure to work with.

Finnish maritime and offshore stand at the ONS were busy during the exhibition. Good to see many Finnish companies attending again.

Construction industry is currently so interesting in Norway that companies are looking for potential partners all the time. House and apartment prices are very high at the moment but this is only for the reason that too few homes are being built. We have discussed about €100 billion infra investments before but now housing market is also interesting going forward. None the less some big projects like Jordal Amfi icehockey arena in Oslo where we have been recently trying to find suppliers from Finland.

The Jordal Amfi hockey rink in Oslo was built for the 1952 winter Olympics and will be taken down. We are looking for subcontractors to the new arena project.

Finnish Partners companies meeting with Exxon Mobil during the ONS

After visits to Nor-Fishing and ONS exhibitions I can see that the offshore and maritime industry have seen good developments for the bright future too. Currently no offshore vessels are being built but yards are busy with fishing vessels and also getting some very big cruise ship contracts. Even that we are happy about the order amount in Turku yard in Finland, so the timing is perfect to look towards Norwegian yards as well for the future cowork. Good news from offshore industry is that new technologies and smaller companies are getting contracts as well. These companies are more agile in today’s business but in need of reliable partners to be successful.

Kongsberg’s new digital division will be very interesting. Today they work from deep sea to the space and have some interesting information to share in the future as well.

And not to forget the technology and the word DIGITALISATION! Everyone is talking about digitalisation but it is not only a nice word. This is a reality in many businesses and as an example Kongsberg Group have started a new division Kongsberg Digital. This massive amount of information available and getting machines and products connected is something that we are interested talking to Norwegian industry as well.

The arctic area have 197 billion euros of investments in the near future. This is a high potential for us!

All in all, things are looking very interesting in Norway at the moment! Even though the next two weeks might be quite exciting for us Finns with Ice Hockey World Cup J I might be a lucky one to see some games live in Toronto. But let’s not forget the business because the weeks after will be quite extensive in project meetings in Norway and at the subcontracting fair in Tampere and at the Industry Summit in Oulu before Offshore Technology days again in Bergen.