Suomi English HOME COMPANY SAMPLES NEWS CONTACTS Home › News › News Our Turku office is relocated to Lappeenranta (1.7.2014) The operations of Palin Granit Oy’s Turku and Lappeenranta offices will be combined on July 1st, 2014, and Turku office will be closed. As of July 1st, 2014, our contact information is as follows: Visiting address Palin Granit Oy Mäntysuonkatu 4 53101 Lappeenranta FINLAND Postal address Palin Granit Oy P.O Box 20 FI-53101 Lappeenranta FINLAND E-Invoices E-invoicing address: 003701357108 Operator: BAWCFI22 Paper Bills Palin Granit Oy P.O Box 160 FI-00511 Helsinki FINLAND All e-mail addresses and phone numbers will remain the same. Erkka Lehto awarded (31.03.2014) Finnish Natural Stone Association awarded in Helsinki 20.3.2014 developers of Finnish natural stone quarrying. The international rise of the stone industry in Finland began in 1970’s. Wheel loaders and hydraulic drilling equipments came to replace the previously used wooden faucets and pneumatic drills. Also line and horizontal drilling was introduced. Developments took place also in wedging: a hydraulic wedging was developed. Furthermore, a change occurred in the use of explosives: the gun powder was replaced by pipe charges and detonating cord. The extraction method was refined further and already at the end of the 1980’s, this multi-step industrial process came to be internationally known as the “Finnish method”. The executive board of the Finnish Natural Stone Association awarded the key developers of the Finnish natural stone quarrying with individual diplomas. Along others, Erkka Lehto from Palin Granit Oy was awarded for his life-time contribution for the natural stone quarrying. The awarded from the left are: the son Pasi and wife Eila of Veli Juhani Hänninen, Ismo Kainu, Tommi Kainu, Erkka Lehto, and the son Jukka of Jaakko Tielinen. CLASS - Climate Adaptive Surfaces (10.02.2014) The Finnish Stone Industry has joined a project which develops surfacing materials to mitigate impacts of climate change in urban environments (http://www.vtt.fi). The new materials are surfacing layers of permeable concrete, asphalt and natural stone together with sub-base structures of aggregate, pipes, geotextiles and water storage tanks. The project is led by researchers from the area of Material Solutions for Infrastructures at VTT. As a partner in the project is the Finnish Natural Stone Association (Pekka Jauhiainen, Olavi Selonen). The project duration is two years (2012-14). Palin Granit and Norwegian company Lundhs join hands (28.11.2013) The Finnish company Palin Granit Oy and the Norwegian company Lundhs AS, both specialised in granite quarrying, have signed a co-operation agreement on the sales and marketing of Palin Granit’s stones. In conjunction with the agreement, Lundhs has also acquired 40 per cent ownership of Palin Granit. The transaction gives rise to Northern Europe’s largest quarrier and marketer of granite blocks. In practice, the co-operation agreement means that Palin Granit will continue to be in charge of its granite quarrying operations in Finland and its marketing and sales in the Nordic countries, Russia, the Baltic countries, and Poland and Germany; Lundhs will market and sell granite quarried by Palin Granit to all other markets. “This transaction and co-operation will put us in an even better position to quarry and sell high-quality Finnish granite on a global scale. It will also reinforce the global position of both companies in the competitive playing field, where our adversaries are major international players and materials that compete with natural stone. Together we can significantly improve our production methods and our marketing,” says Palin Granit’s Managing Director, Heikki Palin. “I am very pleased that we are entering into co-operation with Lundhs. As solid family companies, we have the same operating methods and values, as well as long traditions in quarrying natural stone. In addition, our product lines complement one another brilliantly. Lundhs’ stones mainly come in shades of blue, whereas our materials are mostly brown or red,” says Palin. All in use project started (5.11.2013) Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) has initiated a project where the utilization of the left-over stones from mines and quarries is studied. In the project is included the PG-Black quarry of Palin Granit Oy. The possible usages and the logistical possibilities for the left-over material of the quarry will be examined. In the steering group for the project will be Olavi Selonen from Palin Granit Oy. The project is financed by the Centre of Economic Development, Transport and the Environment of Northern Savo. Duration of the project is 2013-2014. Best environmental practices in natural stone industry (2.7.2013) Finnish Natural Stone Association together with Geological Survey of Finland and Finish Environmental Agency has started a project where the best environmental practices in natural stone industry will be studied. As a chairman of the steering group for the project will be managing director Heikki Palin from Palin Granit Oy and as a vice chairman environmental manager Olavi Selonen from the same company. The project is financed by the Centre of Economic Development, Transport and the Environment of South-East Finland and the Renlund Foundation. Duration of the project is 2013-2014. More efficient machinery for Palin Granit (8.4.2013) Palin Granit Oy has acquired new machinery to its quarries in Virolahti and Ylämaa. With new equipment the production will be more efficient and the environmental burden caused by machines used in the quarries will be lowered. The company will also employ 2-3 new persons for waste rock moving by taking it into own hands. The value of the acquisition is about 2,4 million Euros. Palin Granit bought two, especially for stone block moving developed CAT 988H front loaders and two CAT 770 dumpers for moving waste rock. - With these new investments in machinery we will improve our operational reliability. The demand for natural stone has increased in the global market and the boom of the domestic market in stone producing countries like Brazil and India creates demand for Finnish stone for building materials in Far East and in Middle East. Also the economic affluence in North Africa effects the demand for stone, says the Managing Director of Palin Granit Oy, Mr. Heikki Palin Good reliability and lower environmental load One front loader weighs 57 tons and they are capable of handling blocks up to 50 tons. Due to the heavy weight of the stones, the machines are under a large stress making durability and reliability the most important criteria for the acquisition. The oldest “double eights” have run already over 50 000 hours. Our stone professionals have learned to trust the reliability of the Caterpillar machines and this trust remains also as the running hours increase, says Production Manager Pauli Salmela. Besides efficiency, reliability and the good handling, new machines reduce the use of fuel and CO2 emissions. Moreover, problems caused by noise will be reduced. The moving of waste material in own hands The new dumpers will move waste rock that comes as a by-product of quarrying. The use of the by-product is improving constantly. -We decided to take the moving of the waste rock into our own control after it used to be outsourced. In this way we can be more flexible and keep our promises to our customers even better. We can also employ 2-3 persons who will be available for all our Eastern Finland quarries, says Heikki Palin. CAT 988 Block Loader -front loaders Palin Granit has had Catepillar Block Loaders since 1986 All machinery of Palin Granit has a running number and each machine has a person responsible for it The fuel consumption of the new machines is up to 20 percent less than that of the old ones CAT 770 dumpers The carrying capacity of 40 tons make the CAT dumpers very suitable for waste rock moving in quarries The CAT dumpers are suitable for quarry use because of their outside dimensions, good handling and ergonomics The new engine technology fulfils the required emission level and improve fuel efficiency Taking the delivery of the new dupers Pasi Kurkoi on the left, Jouni Salmela, Heikki Palin, and Pauli Salmela. Making the delivery Heikki Koskema from Wihuri, second from right. With the new front loaders the granite blocks move easily in the Palin Granit quarries. In the picture the drivers of the front loaders: Pete Niemi and Keijo Vapalahti. Customer satisfaction survey now completed (27.2.2013) Palin Granit Oy carried out a customer satisfaction survey during November-December 2012. Innolink Research Oy was responsible for the practical execution of the study. The aim of the survey was to measure the satisfaction of the company's clientele and to identify areas in need of further development. The survey was carried out via Internet, and the response rate was 37 %. Many thanks to all the participants! Read more on the results of the study. Palin Granit participates in a project promoting the use of natural stone (12.11.2012) Palin Granit is participating in a three-year development project to research and promote the use of natural stone. The project has been initiated by the Geological Survey of Finland and includes partners from Finland and Russia. The ENPI Stone* project includes the region of south-east Finland as well as Leningrad Area and the city of Saint Petersburg in Russia. One of Palin Granit’s natural stone prospects is part of the project. The natural stone properties of the prospect will be investigated in autumn 2012 and spring 2013. Furthermore, Palin Granit is contributing its expertise to the planning and realization of the whole project. One of the goals of the ENPI Stone* project is to advance the use of natural stone, particularly in urban construction. An additional goal is to discover new uses for leftover stone, a by-product of natural stone quarrying. Developing uses for leftover stone will create new business possibilities and reduce environmental impacts. When leftover stone can be used more efficiently, a significant amount of natural resources can be saved. Developing beneficial uses for leftover stone is in our best interest. We want to do our part to advance the efficient use of quarrying by-products and to market natural stone as a sustainable product that is suited to a wide-range of construction projects. With this project we will also acquire beneficial knowledge for designing sustainable production.” explains Heikki Palin, the Managing Director of Palin Granit. *) Efficient use of natural stone in Leningrad Oblast and South-East Finland Copyright © Palin Granit Oy