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 APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200090018-7

A number of Swedish companies, including several of the major firms identified in Figure 10, have established a high reputation for the quality of their products, which are in demand throughout the world. Also among the internationally prominent firms are AB Bofors (armaments) and Arendal Shipyard (merchant ship construction).

Swedish industry is heavily oriented towards foreign markets, and nearly half of its manufacturing output is exported annually (46% was exported in 1971). Western European countries take three-fourths of Sweden's exports, and most of the major Swedish firms have established subsidiaries in those countries. During the decade of the 1960's, the number of Swedish companies establishing foreign subsidiaries doubled, reaching 1,806 at the end of the decade. One-third of these were established in member countries of the European Communities (EC), in large part to avoid the EC's Common External Tariff.

a. Machinery and equipment

Sweden produces some of the best quality machinery and equipment in the world/ Its output, however, is not large compared to that of countries such as the United States, the U.S.S.R., the United Kingdom, West Germany, and Japan. Power generating machinery, household appliances, agricultural machinery, and communications equipment are the main products consumed domestically; the most important exports are ball and roller bearings, office machinery, telephone apparatus, and dairy equipment.

Production of ball and roller bearings is one of the major branches of the machinery and equipment industry. Svenska Kullagerfabriken (SKF), Goteborg, is one of the world's foremost producers of bearings. With sales of US$920 million in 1970, SKF is the second-largest Swedish manufacturing enterprise. SKF has manufacturing subsidiaries in nearly 20 countries, including the United States, as well as sales subsidiaries in all principal industrial markets. It supplies the EC countries with a large percentage of their requirements for bearings from plants in West Germany, France, and Italy. Exports of bearings, primarily by SKF, amounted to $69 million, of 5% of Sweden's nonelectrical machinery exports in 1970.

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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200090018-7