AREVA further engages with Finnish business and industry leaders for its new-build projects

During a supplier event organized this week in Oulu, Finland, by the Chamber of Commerce and gathering more than eighty business and industry leaders, AREVA presented the growth opportunities offered by the company’s localization strategy for its new-build projects.

“By leveraging local skills, AREVA’s localization strategy bolsters local economies via jobs creation, increased industrialization and access for local companies to global opportunities as wherever we build, up to 70% of our new-build projects are open to local procurement”, said Virginie Moucquot-Laiho, Head of Communication for AREVA Finland.

At the Olkiluoto 3 (OL3) EPR™ project, more than 100 Finnish suppliers have been involved, with no less than 40 in the safety-related scope and approximately 200 companies from the surrounding region have worked around the life and progress of this project with AREVA. “30% of the OL3 project workers are Finnish and it can be expected that, for future projects, they will be much more” added Moucquot-Laiho.

This event follows on the success of the several “Supplier Days” already organized by AREVA in Finland, the last two, held this year in March in Pori and in August in Oulu, having each gathered over 100 participants. Actively pursuing its localization strategy, AREVA has already held similar “Supplier Days” in the UK, the Czech Republic, Poland and the US to continuously develop its European and international supply chain to ensure competitive, on-time and on-budget delivery of new-build projects worldwide.

The AREVA group seeks not just suppliers, but long-term partners. Whenever possible, it makes economic and logistic sense to work with suppliers who are close to the construction site. AREVA has forged strong relationships with large Finnish industrials which the group wants to reinforce and develop further for both future Finnish and international projects.

Early this year, AREVA submitted its bid to Finnish utility Fennovoima for the construction of an EPR™ reactor at the Pyhäjoki plant, in North Ostrobothnia. The group is also participating in TVO’s bidding process for the construction of their 4th nuclear power plant in Olkiluoto, in the Satakunta region.