9: NEW INDUSTRY

From river delta to industrial park

 

When the mining company’s many businesses began downsizing in the 1950s, there was a major unemployment crisis in the region. Orkla Metal AS was dissolved in 1962. In 1963, passenger traffic on the Thamshavn Line ended. During the same period, production at the Løkken mines was also dropping.

 

Something had to be done – and something had to be sacrificed. In the late 1960s, local authorities decided that the beautiful river delta at the heart of the Orkdalsfjord should be filled in to build a deep-water quay and industrial park.

 

The area would become important for companies supplying the new offshore drilling industry in Norway. Vigor Industrier, a staffing company in the mechanical sector, was the first in 1974. It would take 20 years before development really kicked off. But today Grønøra is one of the most important industrial hubs in Central Norway.