Busi­nes­sOulu Del­e­ga­tion Vis­its Mo Indus­tri­park: Aim­ing for Long-Term Part­ner­ships

At the begin­ning of Octo­ber, a del­e­ga­tion from Busi­nes­sOulu vis­it­ed Mo Indus­tri­park to explore the indus­tri­al envi­ron­ment in Rana and assess col­lab­o­ra­tion oppor­tu­ni­ties between Finnish and Nor­we­gian indus­tries. The vis­it was part of a joint Nordic ini­tia­tive aimed at strength­en­ing ties between indus­tri­al sec­tors. The day’s pro­gram includ­ed pre­sen­ta­tions, com­pa­ny meet­ings, and a guid­ed tour of the indus­tri­al park.

“We want to build long-term rela­tion­ships between Mo Indus­tri­park and Oulu’s busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty. If some com­pa­nies already find part­ners now, that’s great, but our goal is last­ing coop­er­a­tion,” said Hei­ni Malm from Busi­nes­sOulu. “It’s inspir­ing to see how Mo Indus­tri­park pro­motes green indus­try and cross-sec­tor col­lab­o­ra­tion. We believe there are sig­nif­i­cant oppor­tu­ni­ties for both indus­tri­al and aca­d­e­m­ic coop­er­a­tion between our regions,” Malm added.

Busi­nes­sOulu rep­re­sents the city’s busi­ness sec­tor and works to strength­en inno­va­tion, invest­ment, and inter­na­tion­al con­nec­tions for com­pa­nies in North­ern Fin­land. This time, the del­e­ga­tion includ­ed sev­er­al indus­tri­al com­pa­nies from the Oulu region: Swe­co, Mesens, Fim­pec, Fil­tra­bit, and Arc­tic Con­struc­tion Clus­ter, as well as the Indus­tri­al Engi­neer­ing and Man­age­ment unit from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu’s Fac­ul­ty of Tech­nol­o­gy. These rep­re­sen­ta­tives came to meet local stake­hold­ers in Mo i Rana.

“Mo Indus­tri­park rep­re­sents the best of North­ern Nor­way. We’ve been plan­ning a vis­it here for a long time, but only now did we get the right con­tacts. This is our first orga­nized trip here, and the recep­tion has been over­whelm­ing­ly pos­i­tive,” said Juk­ka Olli from Busi­nes­sOulu.
May­or of Mo i Rana, Geir Waage, wel­comed the del­e­ga­tion and pre­sent­ed the city as an indus­tri­al hub with a strate­gic loca­tion, a deep-water port, and a new air­port under con­struc­tion. He also high­light­ed the geopo­lit­i­cal sit­u­a­tion in the North and how a strength­ened east–west corridor—especially the rail­way con­nec­tion between Mo i Rana and Storuman—could be cru­cial if Fin­land were to face a block­ade in the Baltic Sea.

The Finnish guests also heard from sev­er­al indus­tri­al com­pa­ny rep­re­sen­ta­tives at the park. CEO Bjørn Ugedal spoke about Mo Indus­tri­park as a grow­ing green indus­tri­al clus­ter and its role in pro­mot­ing for­ward-look­ing, sus­tain­able indus­try. Elkem’s plant man­ag­er Frode J. Berg described the company’s efforts toward cli­mate neu­tral­i­ty, while Ferroglobe’s CEO Knut Gulle­sen dis­cussed their pro­duc­tion.

SMA Mineral’s con­sul­tant Jan Gabor shared the lat­est updates on a planned zero-emis­sion lime plant in Mo i Rana, with con­struc­tion sched­uled to begin in April 2026 and oper­a­tions expect­ed to start in August 2027. He also not­ed that a poten­tial sec­ond phase depends on the capac­i­ty of the elec­tri­cal grid.

Roger Skat­land, CEO of Momek Group, explained how aqua­cul­ture has become the company’s largest mar­ket for the first time. He empha­sized that the com­pa­ny invests in people—not just equip­ment. “Peo­ple are our most impor­tant resource,” Skat­land said. Kjetil Brose from 7 Steel spoke about the company’s growth and how Mo i Rana’s strate­gic loca­tion offers “excel­lent logis­tics” and access to key mar­kets both north and south.

The pre­sen­ta­tions cul­mi­nat­ed in B2B meet­ings between Oulu-based com­pa­nies and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of Mo i Rana’s indus­tri­al sec­tor. Par­tic­i­pa­tion was active, and dis­cus­sions were live­ly.
After the meet­ings, the del­e­ga­tion took a guid­ed bus tour through the indus­tri­al park, stop­ping in front of Rana Gru­ber and con­tin­u­ing to explore the new deep-water port. Along the way, they were shown how the park is evolv­ing and how col­lab­o­ra­tion between dif­fer­ent actors is build­ing a strong indus­tri­al ecosys­tem.

“The day was very pleas­ant and pro­duc­tive, full of ques­tions and gen­uine inter­est from the vis­i­tors,” sum­ma­rized Arne West­gård, COO of Mo Indus­tri­park, who orga­nized the vis­it. “These kinds of meet­ings strength­en coop­er­a­tion between Nordic indus­tri­al com­pa­nies and cre­ate new oppor­tu­ni­ties for exports, tech­no­log­i­cal devel­op­ment, and green growth,” he said. This vis­it is a great exam­ple of cross-bor­der col­lab­o­ra­tion in the North—cooperation that cre­ates busi­ness oppor­tu­ni­ties, strate­gic con­nec­tions, and tan­gi­ble val­ue for north­ern stake­hold­ers, as well as for the part­ner­ship between Busi­nes­sOulu and the Ener­gi i Nord clus­ter. We are stronger in the North when we share expe­ri­ences, exper­tise, and net­works. Togeth­er, we are lay­ing the foun­da­tion for green indus­try and sus­tain­able growth across the region.

Con­tact Infor­ma­tion

• Juk­ka Olli
  Expert – Export to Swe­den, Nor­way, and Esto­nia
  jukka.olli@businessoulu.com
• Janne Hietanie­mi
  Cus­tomer Account Man­ag­er – Indus­try & Cleantech
  janne.hietaniemi@businessoulu.com
• Hei­ni Malm
  Expert – Busi­ness Devel­op­ment & Export
  heini.malm@businessoulu.com