Feasibility study for an Estonian Materials Technology Programme

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Feasibility study for an Estonian Materials Technology Programme
2. Materials technology in Estonia
Summary and key factors for future
The key target for NordBioChem at the moment is to find an investor, which would be willing to establish an
industrial production facility based on NordBioChem’s technology. This would require a relatively huge investment
and it is highly unlikely that Estonian companies or investors would be interested in such a project.
Therefore, the company is negotiating with various international players for the possibilities to either license or
buy the technology to establish production.
As a conclusion:
NordBioChem has developed economically very effective and very sustainable breakthrough technology
for bulk-size basic chemistry allowing for the replacement of oil with renewable non-food sources.
The Estonian based NordBioChem has done most of its technological development, including creating 10
patents, outside of Estonia
The still in private Estonian ownership company has benefitted from Estonian public development support
programs, but that wasn’t sufficient for commercial implementation of these technologies
Contact and more information: Vambola Kolbakov, http://www.nordbiochem.eu
2.4.5 Construction materials
Industry overview
There is a lot of diversity in the Estonian construction materials industry. The sector consists of companies
producing basic materials such as cement as well as glass and prefabricated building components. Some of
the largest construction materials providers in Estonia include Krimelte (Sealants and insulating foams), Ruukki
Products (steel), Henkel Makroflex (foams and sealants), ES Sadolin (paints and alkyds) and Kunda Nordic
Tsement (cement). The largest areas of construction materials produced in Estonia are therefore mineral based
products (cement, concrete and mortar, lime and clinker), construction chemicals (paints, alkyds, sealants and
foams) and prefabricated structural components for civil engineering (e.g. windows).
In total, the sales of the member companies of the Association of Construction Material Producers of Estonia
were 687 million EUR in 2007 before the economic downturn and the industry employed about 5000 people
at the time. Construction materials industry is mostly rather local due to the relatively low price of raw materials
and massive products that are expensive to ship to distant locations. About 27% of construction materials
produced in Estonia were exported mainly to neighbouring countries such as Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and
Russia. Krimelte is among the largest exporters with approximately 95% of production exported, mainly to
Russia.
R&D and education: national resources and international comparison
Most of the producers use domestic raw materials and the plants are usually situated close to the natural
resources, which include sand, clay, limestone and dolomite. Utilisation of oil shale fly ash and other waste
is another source for construction materials studied in Tallinn University of Technology but has not resulted
in high volume industrial utilisation yet. High level research and education related to civil engineering and
construction materials is mostly done at Tallinn University of Technology and partly at Estonian Agricultural
University. Vocational education is given at Tallinn Technical School. 38 In addition to abovementioned fields,
steel is another globally important construction material but Estonia mostly lacks the basic metals production
sector and therefore, constructional steelwork is not further discussed in the study.
The main advantages of the Estonian construction materials sector are the access to inexpensive natural
resources locally and low production costs due to relatively low salaries. However, the companies in Estonia are
quite small and have neither high ability nor drive to adopt advanced technologies.
38 http://www.investinestonia.com/en/key-sectors/construction-materials