Insight

Sormat Oy 

The last two years have witnessed a break of the recession trend in the European construction markets. Finland did not quite play along, but instead experienced a double dip effect. Now the atmosphere is much more positive.

During the first months of 2016 Finland finally took a step forward on a growth path. Especially the Helsinki capital area, which is booming with many high value mega projects such as the Mall of Tripla and the REDI shopping centres, as well as the West Metro project. The need for quality fasteners and especially heavy-duty anchoring has exploded due to the high performance requirements in these state of the art projects.

“The president of today is just the postage stamp of tomorrow,” said old times’ American comedienne Gracie Allen. The same applies to CE Marking of construction products. The CE Marking indicates product’s conformity with declared performance and that it has been assessed according to a harmonised European standard or a European Technical Assessment has been issued for it. The Finnish ministry of environment, and the relevant building control authorities, have spent a lot of time and money since July 2013 to indoctrinate the industry (manufacturers and traders, designers and builders) about the importance of CE Marking. Today, however, it is evident that in Finland, and most likely in all European countries, there are still many involved parties who do not really understand or appreciate the meaning of CE Marking for construction products, especially fixings. CE Marking is all too often considered just as a mandatory rubber stamp without putting enough thought to the real performance needs and proper comparisons.

Finnish construction product wholesalers and retailers have started to enjoy the fruits of the most recent boom. They also seek growth from portfolio extensions and internet sales. While the mindset understandably is, after a long recession, focused on quick deals and fast cash, it is essential that the fastener and fixing industry actively support their customers – as well as end users – with accurate, topical and easily obtainable product data deeper than just CE Marking. This has been one of the key focuses also for Sormat, as the north Europe’s leading fixing manufacturer. It is imperative in a modern society to provide product data and technical expertise simultaneously in many channels, whether through face-to-face project consultancy, internet-based product selector tools and support forums or in a form of a user-friendly design calculation software. Spirits, expectations, but also customers’ demands are high up here near the Arctic Circle.