The modern industry worker: a new technology operator

“There aren’t many robots here. There’s chemistry and process steps. There’s high temperature, gas, evaporation, columns, elements, gases, liquids. That is what process industry is, says Thor Oscar Bolstad, Director at Herøya Industrial Park.

Herøya Industrial Park hosts some of Norway’s leading process industry companies. 80 percent of what is being produced here is for export. In all, the industrial park comprises 90 companies employing 2,500 people. Most of them are small with fewer than 10 employees. Many offer services which are cast-offs from larger businesses, for which new markets have been found. The large process industry companies are the park’s engines. 

What are the advantages of an industrial park?

“It is fantastic to have access to a site covering 1.5 square kilometres, earmarked and built for industry. It means you have a basic infrastructure which you won’t find elsewhere. If you need to build a factory and need huge amounts of water, lots of electricity, steam, a port, road access, shift labour - this park has it all. We think that if we were to build a similar park with electricity and water supply we would have to spend tens of billions of kroner. All this is already here. You just have to plug in. We are 50 metres away from process water arriving at an x number of cubic litres an hour, you have a great capacity electrical grid with low redundancy which means low start-up costs. We have a site regulated for industrial use and no neighbours to think of, this is industry.

“We have an industry culture in the region. Families are used to people working shifts. This is not the case everywhere in Norway, and we also have many service providers around us who know industry. 

“When new industries open up here, they list these main things as the reasons for choosing Herøya and Grenland. But also that Norway has reasonably priced electricity, political stability and good relations between industry workers and management. This, the Norwegian model which has been talked about so much lately, we have lived with and experienced for years.”  

The process industry which has been established on the old Norsk Hydro site faces new environmental challenges. How does that influence the industry?

“I see that this type of industry has gained an advantage by being ahead of things. They get pay-back for working in a high cost country. When processes are so efficient it means they have to be good when it comes to the environment and energy.”