Mining equipment: a Nordic niche

Managing Director Tommi Juntikka in the small city of Tervola with less than 3,000 citizens in the north of Finland has great plans. His company Paakkola Conveyors is on its way into the big world under its motto ‘We move mountains’, selling transport solutions for mines. The company has developed its own technique for moving ore. 

“This trade will grow for years to come. We shall see in which part of the world we will invest first,” he says.

In the Nordic region alone the opportunities for growth are good enough, but Juntikka also aims for Russia, the OSCE countries and Latin America. When it expands, the company can show very good references.  

The right people

The family business employs some 100 people, two thirds of whom are ‘their own’ and the rest are hired labour. The aim is a permanent staff and within a year Juntikka reckons the number will reach 100 to 120 people.

Despite Northern Finland’s reputation for high unemployment, it is not easy to get hold of the right people. There is more primary industry in this region than in other parts of Finland. Many people come straight from school to start in the manufacturing, assembly or planning of these kilometre-long conveyor belts which carry ore to the enrichment plants. 

Paakkola Conveyors is a company which the government is more than happy to use as an example to follow. Finnish and Swedish manufacturing companies dominate as providers of underground mining equipment and enjoy a 70 to 90 percent share in the total world market, according to Ari Kuparinen at the Ministry for Employment and Economic Development. 

“It is a strong cluster. I don’t know of any other trade in the Nordic region which enjoys such a strong market position.”

But for Finland this is about a handful of large or medium companies like Metso, Sandvik, Outotec and Normet. 

Want to grow 

What is needed is smaller players who want to grow and therefore will create new jobs. Tekes, which channels state money to research and development, has recently launched a new industry programme aiming to help new growth companies within the mining equipment trade with focus on environmentally sustainable solutions. 

“We hope the big ones will include the smaller ones in the development work and that tens of companies want to take part,” says technology expert Kari Keskinen who is responsible for the Green Mining programme. Yet he says he does understand that not all are interested in growing to become international players.

“That does demand a lot of work and the fetching of resources from elsewhere.”

Ari Kuparinen reckons the next 10 to 15 years are looking good. Even if the demand for metals might not grow in the western world, China will soon need more raw materials. Meanwhile the easily accessible deposits are already exhausted and more advanced equipment is needed in order to access raw materials underground. 80 percent of copper, for instance, has so far been extracted in open-pit mining and 20 percent has come from underground mining. In ten years time the numbers will have been turned on their heads. 

When conditions become more difficult the Finnish and Swedish manufacturing companies will deliver the equipment. 

“We have many good years ahead of us,” says Tommi Juntikka at Paakkola Conveyors about the future of his trade.