Four Finns secure deals worldwide

The first one off the mark is Konecranes, which will deliver a Gottwald Model 2 Mobile Harbour Crane to Nigeria’s northernmost port, Baro. The crane will mainly handle containers and general cargo at the river port for the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA).

Konecranes has also been busy in Asia, where the Finnish company has signed four distributor agreements for its lift trucks. Konecranes’ new distributors are Vietnamese company MIPEC Technologies JSC, TIQE Cambodia Equipment in Cambodia, Indonesia-based PT Berca Mandiri Perkasa, and General Machinery Technology in Myanmar.

Then on to Outokumpu, which is acquiring full ownership of the Fagersta Stainless wire rod mill in Sweden. The mill is currently a joint venture between Outokumpu and Sandvik Materials Technology, and the acquisition will take place in two phases, with Outokumpu set to secure 90 per cent ownership by the end of June 2018 and full ownership at the end of 2019. The cash consideration of the transaction is 18 million euros.

Next in line is Nokia, which is developing 500 digitally integrated smart villages in India as part of the Smartpur project. The five key areas of digital development in the villages will be health, education, livelihood, governance, and finance. The first phase of the project covers 20 villages in the states of Haryana and Tamil Nadu, the second phase another 80 villages in various states, and ultimately another 400 villages will be digitalised over a five-year period.

Nokia is also helping to connect people in neighbouring Nepal, where the Finnish telecommunications company will deploy a fibre-to-the-home network together with Subisu, a leading Internet service provider in Nepal. The deployment will support the Nepalese Government’s vision of connecting 90 per cent of the population to broadband by 2020.

Finally to KONE, which has secured its first KONE UltraRope order in North America. The Finnish lift and escalator giant will equip the 244-metre high tower at 110 North Wacker Drive in the Chicago Loop business district with lifts, to be hoisted using its groundbreaking and super-light KONE UltraRope technology.