All posts by Margrethe Harboe

Electric Cars Hit 65% of Norway Sales as Tesla Grabs Overall Pole

Automobile / Transport, Business News

OSLO (Reuters) – Electric cars made up nearly two thirds of Norway’s new sales in 2021, with Tesla the top selling automobile brand overall, as the country pursues its goal of becoming the first to end the sale of petrol and diesel cars.

While Norway, with a population of 5.4 million, has the world’s highest proportion of electric vehicles, China with its 1.4 billion people is by far the biggest overall car market.

Oil-producing Norway has encouraged the switch to zero emission cars by exempting battery electric vehicles (BEVs) from taxes imposed on internal combustion engines (ICE).

This tax break is expected to help drive the proportion of overall electric sales as high as 80% in 2022, ahead of a deadline to end petrol and diesel powered car sales by 2025.

Read full article.

U.S. Claims Title of World’s Largest LNG Exporter

Business News, Chemicals / Metals, Energy

(Bloomberg) –The U.S. became the world’s No. 1 exporter of liquefied natural gas for the first time ever last month, as deliveries surged to energy-starved Europe.

Output from American facilities edged above Qatar in December after a jump in exports from the Sabine Pass and Freeport facilities, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. Cheniere Energy Inc. said last month that a new production unit at its Sabine Pass plant in Louisiana produced its first cargo.

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A Message from the Managing Director

AmCham News

A Message from the Managing Director

Happy New Year!

Evidently, recharged holiday break batteries weigh a couple kilos more – which I deem a reasonable tradeoff. With julemat leftovers now fully depleted and early morning alarm clocks reactivated, a few thoughts on the year ahead.

As we return to our desks (or kitchen/cabin tables), AmCham’s ’22 marching orders have been received loudly and clearly. According to you, our thoughtful member leaders, business development, stability & transparency, market access, public-private collaboration and talent development should underpin all we do. Contributing to our recent strategic priority survey, your guidance, focus, critique and accolades are genuinely valued – and acted upon.

Whether in-person or virtual, coming AmCham meetings have been carefully designed to facilitate exchange amongst Norway’s most vibrant, innovative and deep-rooted companies – bellwethers comprising the vast transatlantic business community. Access to the decision makers who run these companies – and what they perceive as important or less so – cannot be overstated.

Jason Turflinger

Want to understand what the $1.2 trillion US Infrastructure Investment Act means for Norwegian suppliers? Tune in on January 13th.

Want to ask global Sustainability Directors from ABS and KPMG which decarbonization, value chain and urban development paradigms will drive business for their thousands of transatlantic clients? Join us on January 14th.

Want to know what the White House says about future transatlantic data flows, trade and US competitiveness? Please register for our January 31st meeting!

AmCham’s business services offerings, highlighted as possible via our weekly comms, have been fine-tuned to address real member needs. From single-company, specific access issues to trusted referrals, original member articles, policy updates, two talent development programs and in-depth business publications, our hardworking team remains vigilant.

Please note: our popular and unique 2022-23 Mentorship Program will commence in early May. With 70+ Patron-level representatives participating in our current nine-month cross-industry program, now is the time to further invest in leadership skills – both for yourself and for your ambitious colleague(s).

Please also note that our illuminating industry report along with Oslo Economics, aptly entitled Multinational Healthcare Investment in Norway: Fulfilling Potential, will soon be released. Months in the making and impactful, the report embodies the very best of AmCham’s collaborative platform on behalf of improved public-private partnerships.

Government advocacy, an AmCham cornerstone, will empower members in the New Year like never before. Is there a regulatory issue impacting your industry? We’re on it. Is a crucial hearing deadline approaching? Let’s coordinate. Are government agencies unresponsive? Let us know. Need help facilitating sustained outreach to US and Norwegian officials? We can assist!

Especially active on behalf of our tech, healthcare and food & beverage industry members, AmCham’s deep member roster and longtime partner relationships mean that you will remain apprised – and that your committed transatlantic investments will be duly valued.

As we diligently plot out the year’s meeting, services and advocacy initiatives, I’d like to take this opportunity to express my deep appreciation for your camaraderie, example and can-do spirit. The AmCham team is powered and inspired by each and every interaction we have with you, our limitless members!

Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre – New Year Speech 2022

Business News, Government

Excerpt from Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre’s New Year speech:

I am deeply impressed by how all of you, the people of Norway, have coped with the pandemic despite all these challenges.

We have fought COVID-19 by standing together, and by following the recommendations and rules, including those that have been most intrusive on our lives.

We have fought COVID-19 with the best and strongest weapon we have: our sense of community and our collective spirit.

Read the full speech here.

Norway’s Oil Regulator Seeks Value Creation Through Better Use of Data

Business News, Energy, Technology

OSLO – The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has taken an initiative to discuss with the industry which steps can be taken to increase value creation through better use of data.

The initiative is being taken in an effort to improve the NPD’s role as data manager.

“Having the right data available at the right time and in the right format can have a huge impact for the future of the Norwegian shelf,” says May Karin Mannes, the NPD’s Director for shelf analyses and data management.

From a technological point of view, we currently have the opportunity to obtain more insight from data, and it’s easier to put this data together in context. This kind of technology requires resources. The NPD wants to obtain an overview of what is most important for the companies, so that we can take the steps that yield the greatest value. How can the NPD contribute to a greater extent in obtaining data that is critical for the companies’ own value creation, both through www.npd.no and through Diskos?

Read full article.

Norway Wealth Fund CEO Sees Market Weakness, Inflation Threat

Business News, Financial / Investment

(Bloomberg) — The head of Norway’s $1.4 trillion wealth fund said he expects a lengthy period of weakness in financial markets and warned that inflation could be the most significant challenge ahead. Nicolai Tangen, chief executive officer of Norges Bank Investment Management, told Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that after achieving an average rate of return of 6% for a quarter century, the fund is now preparing for “a decade of lower returns.”

 “It might even turn negative,” the paper quoted him as saying in an interview. “We just have to accept that. The future will be less attractive for us than the past.” Tangen said the “biggest potential problem” for the fund — the world’s biggest owner of publicly traded stocks — is inflation and predicted surging prices could have “far more serious consequences than is currently generally assumed.”

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ESG Ratings Scores ‘Very Rarely’ Help, Norway Wealth Fund Says

Business News, Financial / Investment

(Bloomberg)  The biggest owner of stocks in the world tends not to look at the headline numbers provided by ESG ratings firms, and says only by digging into the underlying data does it find the information needed to guide portfolio decisions. “We very rarely, if ever, use the ratings numbers,” said Patrick du Plessis, the global head of risk monitoring at Norges Bank Investment Management.  

NBIM, whose $1.4 trillion portfolio makes it both the world’s biggest wealth fund and the No. 1 investor in publicly traded equities, this week unveiled a tougher stance on assessing environmental, social and governance risk. Using a pre-screening tool, the fund will exclude benchmark stocks that would otherwise have made it into its portfolio, based on a series of ESG tests.

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