I just attended LIGNA in Hannover, Germany together with my colleagues Olle and Karolina. LIGNA is one of the world´s largest tradeshows in the Sawmill and Woodworking industry with an area of 130,000 square meters. The tradeshow had just over 2,000 exhibitors from more than 50 countries. This year it is was more than 90,000 visitors and 40% from other countries than Germany.

I was very excited since it was the first time I arranged a Northern Sweden Pavilion at an international trade show. My work preparation had been since last summer. Most of the work was to recruit the companies and align their interest. The companies and organizations participating were Renholmen, DataPolarna, Cartesia, Alent Drying, SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden, Luleå University of Technology, TräIN project and Västerbotten Investment Agency.

The companies and organizations showcased products and innovations together with spearhead research. It was fantastic that we could show that Northern Sweden is a region with large potential, great companies, leading in wood technology, wood research and full of new opportunities.

Except for exhibiting we also arranged a press tour and mini seminars. We had hoped for more participants at the mini seminars. The speaker that got the biggest audience was Professor Anders Grönlund from LTU. Those who listen told me afterwards that they really appreciated this type of seminars. The presence of Luleå University of Technology strengthens the image we wanted to create about the Nordic region. Besides that, we were very thrilled that journalists from Sweden, Norway, United States and Germany were visiting our pavilion. They made interviews, so hopefully we will soon see something published about us in the press.

The companies participated in LIGNA to look for new international collaboration and to meet new but also existing customers. I got positive response from all of our co-exhibitors and they were very satisfied with the week. Now when we are back in Sweden, we will have an evaluation meeting in beginning of June, to make a judgment if this activity created value. One of the co-exhibitor cannot attend the evaluation meeting, since they are visiting a potential customer in Germany, which they met at LIGNA. Yes, the fair is already showing positive effects!

]]> http://viavasterbotten.se/2013/05/success-for-northern-sweden-pavilion-at-ligna-2013/feed/ 0 http://viavasterbotten.se/2013/05/wind-still-blowing-but-a-little-bit-slower/ http://viavasterbotten.se/2013/05/wind-still-blowing-but-a-little-bit-slower/#comments Wed, 22 May 2013 12:02:29 +0000 Anders http://viavasterbotten.se/?p=7817 I recently attended the North American Wind Expo in Chicago. The expo had less exhibitors than previous years, and the number of visitors was down as well. That doesn’t mean that windpower is dead as a source of energy. The industry in North America has seen some good signs in the last couple of months, and this has energized the sector. Even though windpower has become a mainstream source of energy, there is still a lack of long term policies, especially in the US. It seems like Canada as a nation has a stronger commitment to sustainability in energy, which has generated more optimism in the Canadian wind sector. Canada also faces the same issues as we do, cold climate and icing problems, as well as grid capacity in some good areas for wind. For the first time, I could see some new interesting developments in icephobic coatings that looks promising. The industry, both in Europe and in North America, realizes that the big potential is in the northern parts of the continents, and that therefore good icing solutions are needed. It was also noticeable how aggressive the Asian giants, China and India are, and how they are actively spreading into Europe and North America. Again, they can see that central Europe is crowded, but up here there is still a potential.

There is still a hesitation to enter the Swedish and Norwegian markets, however, since energy prices are low and there are uncertainties in the incentives for renewable energy. Another obstacle, here as in North America, is grid connection cost, and who should bear that cost. With those issues resolved, we could still see a strong future for windpower.

Exploration is also taking a hard hit. It is becoming increasingly difficult for the exploration companies to find the capital to finance their activities.

fututA recent report from Intierra/RMG shows that globally, mining faced  a 28% drop in deals in Q1 2013, and the amount of funds raised in the sector Q1 vs Q4 2012 was down 24%. Exploration activities were at a new low as well facing the 17^th month of falling activity level.

What is good for us though, is that the Nordic region is becoming better known as a stable region with a lot of potential. Sweden had an evening reception and presentation in conjunction with the expo, and Denmark had their own pavilion at the expo.

What’s positive for us in Sweden is that investments in mining continue in our region, and this in turn means that there are still good business opportunities within the engineering sector as well as mining equipment. The more optimistic companies at the expo had already begun to see some market improvements, and believe that things will start to pick up in the autumn of 2013, but the pessimists said it might take a couple of years before the industry recovery is visible.

Let’s hope the optimists are right!

- It is clear that Sweden’s attractiveness as a destination and as a country is growing. With our 19th place, we can now start competing with the big and more established destinations, says Thomas Brühl, CEO of the PR organization Visit Sweden that is marketing Sweden in the world.

The list made by the UN tourism body UNWTO is based on figures that  the countries themselves reported. According to the list tourists spend nearly 1,075 billion dollars abroad. Most money is spent in the U.S., 129 billion dollars.

Sweden has climbed two positions on the list of countries with the largest total revenue from foreign tourism.

- It is the result of a lengthy process. We have increased the availability through for example more direct flights, we have cost effective marketing in social media and more mature tourist destinations, such as ski resorts with functioning ski rental, enough lifts and enough restaurants to attract international tourists, says Thomas Brühl.

For more information, please visit: www.visitsweden.com

(Source: www.norran.se)

In 2001 Metso bought the Svedala coorperation, who had taken over Skega in 1995. Metso now employs 212 people in Ersmark and 30,000 around the world. Metso supplies technology and services to customers in the process industries, including mining, construction, pulp and paper, power, and oil and gas. The factory in Ersmark produces rubber compounds and linings for mills, pumps, screens etc, mainly for the mining industry. Worldwide, Metso anually produces 12,000 tons of rubber compounds and 2500 tons of those are produced in Ersmark says Camilla Ulander, Manager at Metso in Ersmark.

For more information, please visit: www.metso.com/miningandconstruction

(Source: www.metso.com & Norran)

For the eighth consecutive year, the magazine Focus ranked all of Sweden’s 290 municipalities.

With the help of four categories and 43 variables, everything from father index and lake views to broadband connection and the number of sports clubs have been reviewed. An overall winner and four category winners from the categories best place to be young, best place to live with a family, best place to be older and best place to work, has been appointed.

Västerbotten stands out, to begin with by Umeå being ranked in 6th place overall. In the category of ”best place to live with a family” places in Västerbotten are both number one and number three, with Storuman as category winners and Skellefteå closely thereafter.

For more information, please visit: www.fokus.se

(Source: www.fokus.se)

Visma has made a compilation of new statistics from the Swedish Companies Registration Office. There is a remarkably large increase of company startups, which of course is very positive for everyone who is working for more new businesses to start in Sweden, says Lars Fredell, press officer at Visma.

99 new companies were started in April this year in Västerbotten, compared to 46 new companies corresponding month last year. Overall, in all the four forms of enterprise, registrations increased from 78 companies in April last year to 145 this year in Västerbotten.

For more information, please visit: www.visma.se

(Source: Norran)

The winners of the international contest Webby Awards have now been appointed. One of the winners in the category of ”People’s Voice” is the web company North Kingdom, which has it’s base in Skellefteå, Northern Sweden.

-” There are so many prices to win, but the prices where users themselves voted the winner always feels a little more authentic, says David Eriksson, CEO of North Kingdom.

- Google wanted to show what they could do with their browsers, so we created a website where you can build with Lego, says David Eriksson.

North Kingdom’s partnership with Google and Lego is now continuing in other, larger projects.

- We are currently working with the continuation that also includes mobile solutions.

For more information, please visit:

www.northkingdom.com

(Source: www.norran.se)

”The Easy Locator HDR has been a long awaited product update and we knew demand would be strong. These results clearly demonstrated that our users respond positively to technology updates that improve productivity and I expect 2013 will be very good year for the Easy Locator solutions”, says Jonas Moberg , CEO.

Malå Geoscience is a ground penetration radar solution provider who’s solutions enable professionals to create, analyze and transform vast amounts of complex ground penetrating radar data into understandable visual representations of subsurfaces. The Easy Locator HDR is a new technology platform for radar with improved performance, which makes it possible to see both deeper and with better resolution.

The new product has been widely acknowledged, it was for in instance very well recieved by the market on a trade show in the U.S. recently. CEO, Jonas Moberg states that the new product puts the company on the cutting edge, a head of other competitors on the global market.

(Source: Norran & www.malags.com)

For more information, please visit:

www.malags.com