IT and software development in Sweden is in an advanced state of technology. Telecommunications and information technology are the key sectors in the industry as well as in the economy of Sweden. Domestic production in the IT industry is primarily dominated by the software market and custom made software solutions.
Sweden has a world leading position in the segments of entertainment, e.g. games and gambling software, aerospace industry software support, and production critical software. Strong segments are also software for wireless applications, intelligent home communications, applications for the process control, health, automotive and forestry sectors.
Automotive industry plays a central role in the Swedish economy. The automobile industry accounts for one-fifth of machine and inventory investments by Swedish industry. With more than 1.200 individual companies, a work force of 75.000 people, the automotive supplier industry is one of the largest manufacturing sectors in Sweden. It generates about 15% of total exports, and primary export market is United Stated.
In an international perspective, Swedish automotive manufacturers make relatively few passenger cars, accounting for only 1% of world production. In terms of heavy vehicles over 16 metric tons, however, Swedish manufacturers are among the largest in the world. One-fifth of the heavy trucks produced in the world (during 2005) were manufactured by either Volvo or Scania.
Biotechnology in Sweden consists of few large scale producers and many small enterprises that are very research and knowledge-intensive. Pharmaceuticals, the main application sector, was the first to start commercial activities in the biotechnology field.
One of the strongest pharmaceutical and biotechnological regions in Europe - Medicon Valley is situated in the Greater Copenhagen area in Denmark and Skåne region of Southern Sweden. Medicon Valley comprises a dense cluster of universities, hospitals and more than 300 life science companies, of which more than 200 are R&D based.
Steel and iron industry in Sweden has existed since 18th century. Since, the location of the steelworks is largely a heritage from the past, however, all production companies today are privately owned. Specialty steels (alloy and high-carbon steels) contain more than half of total crude steel production, making Sweden distinct from other major steel producing countries.
Swedish steel companies are world leaders in producing electric resistance equipment, stainless strip steel, stainless seamless tubing, stainless wire, roller bearing steels and engineering steels.
