Skellefteå

Skellefteå is the largest coastal municipality in Sweden. It’s also an extraordinarily good place to develop new ideas, and realise your dreams. The population of the municipality is today around 72 000 and the goal is to reach 80,000 by 2030.

A city of ingenuity and creativity!

Skellefteå has a deeply rooted culture of creativity, entrepreneurship and equality, we create the time and space to grow through the most important resource of all: ideas – our own and each other’s.

The city has become known for it’s creative sector! There are many specialized companies in this sector, many with global companies, such as Toyota, Coca Cola, Adidas, Disney, and Vodaphone among others.

Some of the companies have also won global awards for their work! The traditional cultural sectors are also strong, especially the music scene, but Skellefteå is also the home of the regional theater for the province! Many of the most famous writers in Sweden, also come from this area! A new major congress center and cultural complex has been approved to be built in the city centre.

Education

Skellefteå campus's Luleå University of Technology has their research center for wood technology in the campus, specializing in wood physics, and industrial housing construction.

Other important research sectors include high voltage energy , distributed computer systems, and game development and animation

11,4 percent of the population have some kind of university education, and many have also attended vocational schools, relevant for the industrial sectors

Industry

The city’s industrial drivers, have long been the natural resource sector - minerals, wood, and hydropower. Many great innovations have sprung from supplying and servicing these sectors. The creativity associated with solving problems in these base sectors has created many world-class products and services. It has also spread to other sectors, such as IT, and game development!

Within the green sectors, Skellefteå has taken a global lead in new wood construction, such as multi storey residential housing, wooden bridges, etc. Wood has also lead to a competence in bio energy, that is not matched by many other regions! Martinssons in Skellefteå is Sweden’s biggest, privately owned saw mill, with an annual production of 330 000 m3 and now investing to reach 410 000 m3. They are world leaders in CLT (Cross Laminated Timber) and produce 60 000 m3 of gluelam, and have a special division for construction of houses using their own technology

The region is also known for it’s mining! Boliden, a major mining company orginally found gold and other minerals in the area, and from having been a major pollutant, today they operate the world’s most environmentally friendly smelter! The company has also embraced the thinking of a circular economy, and today their smelter, Rönnskär, operates the world’s biggest smelter for electronic scrap, receiving 120 000 tons of scrap annually. Boliden calls this ”City Mining”

Infrastructure

Skellefteå has a major seaport, with an annual capacity of 400,000 tonnes. Wood and metals are shipped out, whilst electronic scrap, are unloaded. The port is connected to the main trunk railroad line that also passes through the municipality, and a major European highway (E4) also passes through the city! There is also a major highway going to Norway, and the Atlantic seaports!

The city has an airport with several daily flights to Stockholm through jet service, and can also offer charter flights to many foreign destinations.

Broadband services are of top class, and with excellent redundancy.

The municipality is the owner of one of the biggest utilities in Sweden, with almost all power being hydropower from fully owned dams, and the power supply is extremely reliable. The annual production of electricity is more than 4100 GWh, of which district heating is 680 GWh and they also have a production of 68 000 tons pellets. Their biggest CHP - combined heat and power - generates 260 GWh of district heat, and 170 GWh of electricity. Skelleftea Kraft is also the operator of the biggest land-based wind farm in the country

A lovely city to live-work and play in

The city of Skellefteå is a city characterised by contrasts. On one hand, there are all the events and activities of metropolitan life. On the other, there are small, cosy villages, untouched wilderness and long, sandy beaches. Here, basic industries in the timber and mining sector thrive and there is a successful manufacturing industry, but also a growing throng of companies in IT, the Internet and communication.