Oh, darn it 
I would have gladly added Ugi’s Valmet to my own portfolio. Even though things are generally difficult now, it’s a future business.
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Big investors apparently pulled out. Risks, apparently, it’s interesting that in a project of this magnitude, the preparation was so poorly done.
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Nothing new about Valmet’s way of doing things, huh? 
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Production of a sleek Mercedes is starting in Uusikaupunki. 
There is no paywall on this article.
At Valmet Automotive’s Uusikaupunki car plant, a production line for the four-door Mercedes AMG GT Coupé sports car range is currently being built behind protective screens.
A taste of what’s to come was experienced during a recent factory visit, where one of the vehicles used was the plug-in hybrid Mercedes-AMG GT 63 E Performance, which with its 843 horsepower is the manufacturer’s most powerful production car to date. It feels somewhat celebratory that its production in Finland will begin this autumn.
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The main market area is, after all, the USA, and there has already been an outcry there since Mercedes announced it would also be dropping the V8 engine from the model in question. AMG is “replacing” V8s with four- or six-cylinder engines. Last year, Mercedes sold over 3,000 GT Coupes. 2023 has started steadily with sales of just over 200 units per month. The statistics do not reveal the share of the model that Valmet has now secured. But, we are talking about a so-called “niche” product.
Ford is not giving up on the V8, and neither is Chevrolet. French-led Chrysler has announced that V8s, and especially the 700hp “Hellcat” engine, will only continue in the Dodge Durango SUV. It will be interesting to see what the sales of the “under-powered” RAM pickup will be next year when the V8 is no longer an option.
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There is a desire to grow, but they’re staying quiet about the listing.
Yle asked Valmet Automotive whether there are still plans to proceed with the stock market listing that was abruptly withdrawn last year. At the moment, according to the company, plans to accelerate growth cannot be disclosed in more detail.
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Valmet is likely not alone. The automotive industry is in turmoil. Even Mercedes started building a factory in Egypt. In the battery industry, governments are engaging in such an auction and offering staggering billions in cold hard cash to car/battery manufacturers. The latest example is probably how the Indian Tata (Land-Rover, Jaguar) was persuaded to establish a Gigafactory in Britain. The state sums and support are so large that this country doesn’t stand a chance. Perhaps the only market segment with any room left is the reuse of recycled battery cells?
Post merged into thread: Valmet - Master of Transformations
Valmet Automotive
Valmet Automotive manufactured 800,000 battery systems last year. This is a new production record for the company.
With this record, the gross sales of the EVS (Electric Vehicle Systems) business line exceeded the 1 billion euro mark for the first time, the company reported on Thursday. This refers to gross sales, which includes all invoiced components, i.e., revenue and materials and components pass-through billed to customers.
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Valmet Automotive is mentioned briefly in the article, and I wouldn’t draw any major conclusions based on it just yet, but it might interest the readers of this thread. The article is not behind a paywall and can be read in a few minutes.
US President Joe Biden’s administration is preparing a broad decision on new tariffs concerning China, according to information from the Bloomberg news agency.
The new tariffs would apply to, among other things, electric vehicles, batteries, and solar cells. According to Bloomberg, the decision is potentially intended to be announced next Tuesday. Import duties on cars could rise to as much as 100 percent, according to Financial Times sources.
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Well then, Valmet Automotive’s battery business is being spun off into its own company.
“As part of the implementation of this strategy, Valmet Automotive is transforming its Electric Vehicle Systems (EVS) business line into an independently managed company, the entire share capital of which is currently owned by Valmet Automotive.” Note the for the time being! The battery business would surely be much more interesting on the stock exchange than assembling tin cans.
There is also some speculation about the matter in Kauppalehti without a paywall. Nothing special, however.
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Valmet Automotive’s ownership is being rearranged, with CATL exiting and the state entering.
The ownership of the battery division is being separated from Valmet Automotive, and the battery company will henceforth be a subsidiary of FMG (Finnish Minerals Group). Of the shares, the state-owned FMG owns the majority, 70%, Varma owns 16%, and SRV-Kokkilat’s Pontos owns the remaining 14%.
The ownership of the Automotive side, on the other hand, will henceforth be under the state’s Tesi (industrial investment company), with Tesi owning
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We have the most right-wing government in centuries, which then suddenly started implementing a Marxism textbook. The RKP minister responsible for state ownership steering considers the investment strategic. The value of Valmet Automotive Battery Industry is practically zero euros, yet suddenly the pariah state dug up 120 million. In Sweden, the state didn’t lift a finger when Northvolt went bankrupt. Nor was it
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I don’t really know why this would be an RKP strategic investment, as there are hardly any Swedish speakers in Uusikaupunki, where the biggest factory is, and the same goes for Salo. And at least based on public announcements, the strategy is not the battery industry but the defense industry, where self-sufficiency would be good to increase.
As for Posti, it seems to be Finland’s largest operator, e.g., in parcel logistics, with about a 50% market share, and a profitable one at that. Of course, the international businesses went splendidly wrong.
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Doesn’t the area belong to this Swedish-speaking Gulf of Bothnia coast?
The state would get a much better return by supporting existing projects and more strictly directing the defense forces’ procurements based on the domestic content rate. Other countries do the same.
With those prices, Posti (Finnish Post) has every reason to be profitable. I was going to send a small package to Estonia, but the asking price was so outrageous that it was cheaper to go there myself and deliver the package at the same time. I’ll try to avoid the whole institution from now on.
No. In Uusikaupunki, the proportion of Swedish-speakers is 0.4%. The Swedish People’s Party (Rkp) does not even have one city councilor.
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This is a different company than the listed company Valmet. Easy to confuse due to the similarity of the name. A bit like Trainers House and Investors House —
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Yes, exactly. If you’re not sure, you probably wouldn’t publish the story 
The state’s maneuvering + the pushing out of the Chinese get a bit of an explanation from this Valmet Automotive and Patria arrangement:
The Uusikaupunki car factory will start manufacturing Patria’s armored vehicles Uudenkaupungin autotehdas alkaa valmistaa Patrian panssaroituja ajoneuvoja | Kauppalehti
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