GREETINGS FROM CEO

Celebrating Our Legacy

This year, we are celebrating our 130th anniversary – our company history goes back to the end of the 19th century and continues to this day.

From our beginnings in dynamite production in 1893, we have continued our operations throughout the 20th century to the present.

Today, we are the leading expert in explosives and blasting for Nordic conditions – and present on the global market for the digitalisation of mining. We are also a major player within environmental consulting services, as well as a responsible producer of state-of-the-art defence technologies for the global market.

We feel that a long history comes with a sense of duty for the future. This means taking responsibility and leading our industry forward. We are committed to continuously developing our products and services, utilising modern digital technologies to address the needs of a sustainable future.

Forcit Continues To Grow Through Turbulent Times

Overall European economic development and the operating environment have been heavily influenced by the pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and the aftermaths of these. Despite an overall challenging business environment, we continue to grow as a company and have solid finances. This enables us to invest in our future. circular economy can contribute to supply to some extent, but not even close to meeting the future needs. This puts the European mining industry at the forefront of the green transition.

Resilience and security of supply are strongly connected to sustainable business. The importance of these issues has increased significantly during the past years and today constitute key challenges for us. During 2022, the macro-level discussion on European security of supply related to critical raw materials and energy has also intensified. Access to rare earth elements, as well as many base metals and minerals is essential to sustain Europe’s climate ambitions as well as our independence. A typical electric vehicle battery pack, for example, needs around 8 kilograms of lithium, 35 kilograms of nickel, 20 kilograms of manganese and 14 kilograms of cobalt, while charging stations require substantial amounts of copper. For green power, solar panels use large quantities of copper, silicon, silver, and zinc, while wind turbines require iron ore, copper, and aluminium.

Currently, European production of many critical raw materials is less than three per cent of the EU’s own needs, which makes the EU highly dependent on imports from for example China. Recycling and

Our customers operating in the mining and infrastructure construction field in the Nordic countries have a pivotal role to play in this development, and as a key supplier and partner to these industries, we are an important part of this value chain.

Interest in our defence technology has increased over the past years because of the geopolitical environment which culminated in the war in Ukraine. As many countries are raising their defence budgets, the demand for our technologies continues to grow at a rapid pace. We expect the growth within this segment to continue for many years to come as Europe rebuilds its defence capabilities.

Safety is always our key priority. In 2022, we took several steps to further strengthen consciousness and safety culture at FORCIT.

Ambitious Roadmap To Reach Carbon Neutrality By 2035

We strive to be at the forefront of our industry when it comes to sustainability. Our strong commitment to be a part of the solution in the global fight against climate change is well reflected in our goal to be carbon neutral in our operations by 2035.

Our carbon neutrality roadmap, finalised in 2022, includes investments and development projects that will help us to reduce emissions, improve energy efficiency and further increase the share of green energy. We have also initiated a comprehensive R&D program to develop a green product line.

We are committed to continuing stretching ourselves every day to fulfil the expectations on us as a trustworthy supplier, also during turbulent times, and to taking further steps in sustainable product and services development. Always with safety first! Here’s to the next 130 years of charging ahead!

Joakim Westerlund CEO FORCIT Group