News

The 2022 figures for the Vaasa-based operations of Kvarken Ports, the joint port company of the cities of Vaasa and Umeå, show strong growth across the board. The growth of industry in the Vaasa region and the positive trend towards environmentally friendly shipment by sea were reflected in several transport areas of Kvarken Ports Vaasa.

The traditional Logistics Forum organised by VASEK brought together the region’s logistics and freight forwarding operators around a breakfast table on the 19th of January. Tomas Häyry, Mayor of Vaasa and the leader of the GigaVaasa team, opened the event and reminded the audience of the work that has already been done to develop the battery value chain and the work that still lies ahead:

Cargo ships glide to the port of Vaasa all year round to unload, parts of wind turbines, and other parts of large projects such as engines, process industry boilers or cranes onto the quay or directly onto the trailers. About twenty experienced professionals at port operator Blomberg Stevedoring ensure that these valuable parts and pieces are safely moved ashore, forwarded to the storage or straight to their destination also in a swirling wind.

FREYR Battery has made a planning reservation on a plot in the GigaVaasa area for the construction of a cathode materials factory. Plot 16, which became vacant after Johnson Matthey sold off their battery materials business, has now been reserved for the factory.

Finnish Minerals Group and Epsilon Advanced Materials have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) under which the companies will evaluate the possibility of setting up an anode materials production facility in Vaasa. A plot of land in the GigaVaasa area has been reserved for the facility after it became vacant when the cooperation between Grafintec Oy and Epsilon Advanced Materials ended on the 25th of August 2022.

The first European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) project search related to ecosystem agreements was in May, and the second application round opens on 15 September. This time approximately EUR 565,000 in funding is being allocated for projects that promote the three objectives defined in the Vaasa Ecosystem Agreement; Vaasa's carbon neutrality 202X, development of the harbour area and development of the research infrastructure. The application ends on 19 October 2022.

The Finnish company Grafintec Oy and Epsilon Advanced Materials from India, which have reserved land in the GigaVaasa area, have announced in a stock exchange release that they are dissolving their mutual cooperation agreement. However, the City of Vaasa will continue negotiations with each company separately.

The start-up grant aims to secure a new entrepreneur's primary livelihood for the estimated time it takes to establish business activities. Therefore it is an income supplement intended for entrepreneurs and doesn't belong to the business assets. After all, they must be able to live and perhaps support their family even when it may not be possible to pay themselves enough salary at the starting stage of the business.

On the 19th of May, a delegation of about 50 people from Groningen, the Netherlands, visited Vaasa. The group included regional ministers, the Mayor of Groningen, CEOs of various companies, as well as others in senior positions.

Although Vaasa wants to be the happiest city in the world, the Strömsö embrace does not always reach here the same way as it does at Strömsö. Failures are part and parcel of normal life, which means that we all screw up sometimes. We want to point out that happiness is not the same thing as perfection and constant success.