Displaying items by tag: metso

Metso announced on October 27, 2009 the decision to invest in special valves production in Finland. Today, the foundation stone on the new Metso industrial valves factory will be laid in Vantaa.
 
              

The Finnish production of Metso’s industrial valves and personnel in automation and power generation in the Helsinki region, all together 800 people, will move to new factory and to adjoined office building at the beginning of 2011. Metso’s industrial valves factory has operated in Roihupelto, Helsinki nearly 50 years.

Pasi Laine, President, Energy and Environmental Technology, Metso says that in Finland Metso has strong know-how in product development and manufacturing in special valves intended for demanding applications, for example in oil and gas industries and in power generation. ’’The new facility will enable us to bring more efficiency to the production process for these technologically advanced industrial products and will improve the prerequisites for further developing quality and delivery capability.’’

’’In Metso’s power generation solutions, for example in biomass power plants, our automation know-how and valves are in key role. So it is natural that these professionals work under same roof in the future,’’ he continues.

The new facility is continuation in the line of investment decisions to develop Metso’s services globally. Just previous week Metso’s new technology center was inaugurated in Shanghai. ‘’These are positive messages to our personnel and to our customers: We are constantly improving our service level to our partners in oil, gas, process and pulp and paper industries,’’ Pasi Laine comments.
The builder of the new Vantaa factory is Sponda Plc, real estate investment company. Metso will lease about 23,000 m2 of production facilities under a long-term agreement with Sponda which is also leasing to Metso some 12,000 square metres of office and warehouse premises in the office building next to the new building. The relocation is estimated to result in one-time costs of about EUR 4 million.

Metso’s Energy and Environmental Technology segment employs about 2,300 in Finland. In total Metso has more than 8,000 employees in Finland.

Further information for the press, please contact:
Pasi Laine, President, Energy and Environmental Technology, Metso, tel. +358 40 562 4339. 4-5 PM (+2 GMT)
Markku Simula, President, Flow Control, Automation business line, Metso, tel. +358 40 579 8128, 4-5 PM (+2 GMT)

Metso-acquired Tamfelt Corp. has been established as Fabrics business line within Metso’s Paper and Fiber Technology. Tamfelt was delisted from the stock exchange on May 4, 2010 after Metso had acquired all of Tamfelt shares.

The name change from Tamfelt Corp. to Metso Fabrics Corp. has been registered in the Trade Register on May 21, 2010. Metso Fabrics Corp.’s subsidiaries Tamfelt PMC Corp., Tamfelt Filtration Corp. and Tamfelt Kiinteistöt Oy continue under their present names.

Reima Kerttula, who was President and CEO of Tamfelt Corporation, has been appointed as the President of the Fabrics business line.

Metso is a global supplier of sustainable technology and services for mining, construction, power generation, automation, recycling and the pulp and paper industries. We have about 27,000 employees in more than 50 countries. www.metso.com

Further information for the press, please contact:
Reima Kerttula, President, Fabrics business line, Metso, tel. +358 40 064 8458

Metso and Chinese pulp and paper industry top executives gathered together on May 18 in an industry summit focusing on the promotion of sustainable development in the industry. The event, supported by China Paper Industry Chamber of Commerce, took place in the Finland pavilion at the Shanghai World EXPO, and was followed by an awards ceremony, hosted by Metso.

"Ever increasing energy costs and emissions regulations, as well as the need to decrease fresh water usage are major considerations for the process industry around the world today. Pulp and paper industry is no exception. Investment in the development and implementation of the best available technology is the only way to boost energy and materials efficiency, and to reduce emissions and water consumption", states Ari Harmaala, President of Metso Operations in China.

The event focused on two main themes: How to solve the contradiction between shortage of raw material supply and rapid growth in investments in China, and how to produce pulp and paper in a sustainable way. Today, carbon emissions and ecological sustainability are already of high concern in China, but they are expected to grow in importance as stricter policies are being implemented.

China is the world's leading producer of paper and board with its annual production of over 80 million tons. Due to rapid investment in the industry since 1990s, China has the most modern pulp and paper making fleet in the world. Metso has played a key role in this development by having supplied about 35 percent of China's paper and board machine capacity built since 2000, thus earning its position as the market leader in China.

Since the outset of its pulp and paper operations in China in the 1950's, Metso's scope of operations has expanded to include the mining, construction, energy and recycling industries. Today, Metso employs close to 3,000 professionals in 24 local subsidiaries and sales and service outlets in China. In 2010, two new locations will be inaugurated. One of them is the technology center to be opened in Shanghai on May 28 comprising a state-of-the-art valve factory and a supply center as well as assembly and testing facilities for process automation systems. In fall 2010, Metso will open its third service center in China, in Zibo, Shandong, for the pulp and paper industry.

Metso is one of the sponsors of the Finland pavilion at the World EXPO. During the EXPO, Metso will arrange several targeted customer events focusing on clean solutions that help overcome demanding process industry challenges regarding eco-efficient operations.

Metso is a global supplier of sustainable technology and services for mining, construction, power generation, automation, recycling and the pulp and paper industries. We have about 27,000 employees in more than 50 countries. www.metso.com

Further information for the press, please contact:
Ari Harmaala, President of Metso Operations in China, tel. +86 13911792766

Source: www.metso.com

Image © Partanen & Lamusuo Partnership/Anima Vitae/Finpro

Metso has received an order to supply a recausticizing plant for Metsä-Botnia’s Kemi mill in the city of Kemi in Finland. The new plant will replace an existing recausticizing line and is scheduled to start up during autumn 2011. The value of the order will not be disclosed. The order is included in Paper and Fiber Technology’s Q2 orders received.

Metso's scope of supply covers a complete recausticizing plant comprising a clarifier, a decanter centrifuge, a green liquor cooler, a slaker, causticizers, a pressure disc filter for white liquor) and storage tanks. The new recausticizing plant is designed for 7,000 m³ of white liquor per day. The delivery also includes basic and detail engineering for piping, erection and start-up.

The new recausticizing plant will lower the maintenance costs and improve the efficiency and environmental performance at the Metsä-Botnia Kemi mill and will be the first recausticizing plant to be delivered by Metso to Finland.

Oy Metsä-Botnia Ab is part of the Metsäliitto Group. UPM-Kymmene Corporation owns 17 % of Metsä-Botnia. Metsä-Botnia operates four mills in Finland and is one of Europe’s top producers of chemical pulps. The production capacity of the Kemi mill is approximately 590,000 tons of kraft pulp per year, the total production of Metsä-Botnia being approximately 2.4 million tons per year.

Further information for the press, please contact:
Thomas Malmqvist, Sales Manager, Recausticizing, Fiber business line, Metso, tel. +46 54 14 23 87 (in English and in Swedish)
Hannu Tähkänen, Senior Vice President, Wood and Pulp Handling, Fiber business line, Metso, tel. +358 40 551 7947 (in English and in Finnish)

Tamfelt has been a part of Metso Corporation since December 28, 2009. During the first months of 2010, Metso and Tamfelt have been integrating their operations. The market situation in Tamfelt’s line of business continues to be challenging.

For economic and production reasons, and due to the reorganization of operations, the company has today given a negotiation proposal according to the employee negotiations act to the representatives of all personnel groups at Tamfelt Corp. and Tamfelt PMC Corp., both Tampere and Juankoski plants. The negotiations do not apply to office staff and workers at the production departments.

The employee negotiations will discuss the measures needed to adjust the operations to the present situation. Measures that can be used are temporary lay-offs, part-time work, and layoffs. The need for personnel reduction is maximum 30 people. The negotiations will be completed in June 2010.

In addition to personnel reductions, the operations will be made more efficient and cost efficiency will be improved also through other measures, in order to secure competitiveness and operations also in the future.

Tamfelt is part of Metso’s Paper and Fiber Technology segment and it employs about 900 people in Finland.

Metso is a global supplier of sustainable technology and services for mining, construction, power generation, automation, recycling and the pulp and paper industries. We have about 27,000 employees in more than 50 countries.www.metso.com

For more information, please contact:
Martti Heinola, President, Tamfelt PMC Corp., tel. +358 40 594 4254
Kimmo Pärssinen, CFO, Tamfelt Corp., tel. +358 40 505 3755

The official inauguration of the Metso Technology Center will take place on May 28, 2010 in Shanghai. The opening of the center brings facilities for the world’s newest and most modern valve factory and supply center as well as facilities for the production, assembly and testing of process automation systems. In addition to the office premises, the center also comprises premises for Automation business line’s sales, project and engineering units in China. All of Automation business line’s units in the Shanghai area will be operating at the new center.

The Metso Technology Center, located in the Shanghai Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone, comprises 20,000 square meters of floor space for manufacturing and 9,500 square meters of office area. Initially, the center will employ about 250 people. Later, in 2013, the number of employees forming a functional entity is estimated to increase to 650. Metso’s applications, solutions and knowledge-based services are designed to improve customers’ process performance and profitability by increasing productivity, quality, process availability and environmental friendliness.

With a strong presence in China, Metso can provide better service to energy, oil and gas, and pulp and paper customers, especially in China and Asia Pacific. It also enables the development of a global supply chain for valve production.

One of the most notable transactions over the course of some years has been the delivery of more than 3,000 rotary control valves and 1,000 automated valves and 3,500 intelligent valve controllers to one of the world’s largest ethylene project in China.

Metso is also the leading supplier of automation solutions to the pulp and paper industry in the Chinese markets. Metso is a clear industry leader in flow control devices for the pulp and paper industry, with a 60% share of the markets served. Metso has supplied over 100 control systems to the power industry and well over 100 control systems to the pulp and paper industry.

Metso made its first deliveries to China back in the 1950s. It started its own operations in China through a joint venture in the 1980s. Today, Metso operates in 16 different localities in China, where it has about 2,600 employees.

Metso is a global supplier of sustainable technology and services for mining, construction, power generation, automation, recycling and the pulp and paper industries. We have about 27,000 employees in more than 50 countries. www.metso.com/automation

Metso Automation
Esa Lumme, Director Shanghai Plant, Metso’s Automation business line Tel: +86 1391 865 8049
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
http://www.metso.com/automation

The Tissue Technology Center of Metso, situated in Karlstad, Sweden, was hit by fire on April 28, 2010.

The fire caused damages to the roof of the Technology Center building. The personnel was not endangered, nor were the tissue pilot machine itself or any other vital systems affected by the fire. Cleaning up and repairs were started immediately after the fire was extinguished.

The company now focuses on minimizing downtime of the tissue pilot machine due to the roof repair. At the moment the machine is expected to be back in operation within a few weeks.

Metso is a global supplier of sustainable technology and services for mining, construction, power generation, automation, recycling and the pulp and paper industries. We have about 27,000 employees in more than 50 countries.www.metso.com

For further information, please contact:

Anders Björn
President, Metso Paper Karlstad AB
Cell phone +46 705 1713 38

Jan Erikson
Vice President, Sales, Tissue business line, Metso
Cell phone +46 70 517 14 90

Metso’s President and CEO Jorma Eloranta comments: “In the first quarter most of our markets and customer industries continued to recover. It seems that the recovery is gaining momentum, and is today broader based than during the past six months. Our customers' higher capacity utilization rates have boosted the activity level of our services business and since our customers are regaining their confidence the demand for new capital equipment and project business has also improved. Price competition in the markets seems to be easing up as the trading environment is getting stronger.

The measures we have carried out in the past few years to develop our operating models and to adjust our cost structures have supported our first-quarter profitability although net sales were still relatively low following modest order intake levels in 2009. Assuming that we continue to win new, profitable orders, net sales for the coming quarters should also be picking up. The first quarter confirmed that due to our decisive and quick response to the market turmoil in the second half of 2008 through 2009, Metso is today a more competitive company than before.

We have gradually started ramping up the engineering and manufacturing capacity to match the improved demand but there seems to be some slowness in our component supplier and subcontractor base to ramp up their capacity. Likewise we are also continuing to further develop our services business and global presence as well as our solutions based on environmental business.

Based on the recovery in order intake during the past 6 months and the current market outlook we are somewhat raising our net sales guidance for 2010. We estimate that our net sales will be over EUR 5 billion. We expect our 2010 profitability to be satisfactory.“

Short-term outlook
Global economic recovery is strengthening and there are positive signs in demand in most of our customer industries. The improving capacity utilization rates are supporting our services business and most of our customers are gradually regaining their confidence to increase the level of their investments.

The number of quotations for equipment and projects from mining companies has clearly increased. This has already had a positive impact on our orders and we expect this to continue during the rest of 2010, contributing to an overall satisfactory trading environment. Due to the strengthening demand and price level for minerals as well as our large installed equipment base, we expect demand for our mining services to continue to improve.

We anticipate that demand for equipment used in aggregates production by the construction industry will be satisfactory in Europe and weak in North America during the year. In the Asia-Pacific region and Brazil, infrastructure construction projects are maintaining good demand thanks to economic growth and stimulus packages. We estimate that demand for our services business for the construction industry will remain satisfactory.

Demand for power plants that utilize renewable energy sources is expected to be good in Europe and North America in 2010. Several countries have published targets to increase the use of renewable energy and this is expected to support demand for our power plant solutions fuelled by biomass and waste. Demand for the power plant services business is expected to be satisfactory.

We estimate that demand for our automation products will be satisfactory during this year, as the oil, gas and petrochemical industries increase their investments due to the improvement in energy prices and demand. Demand for our services business for automation is expected to be satisfactory.

We expect the demand for metal recycling equipments to improve due to the increasing production volumes of steel, resulting from the strengthening of the global economy. The demand for solid-waste recycling equipment is estimated to be satisfactory. Demand for recycling equipment services is expected to improve in 2010 as the capacity utilization rates of our customers’ plants and equipment improve.

We estimate that demand for new fiber lines will recover to a satisfactory level, and demand for rebuilds and services will strengthen during the year. Demand for paper, board and tissue lines is expected to be satisfactory. We expect the capacity utilization rates of the paper and board industry to improve during the year, which should increase the demand for our services business.

We estimate that our net sales in 2010 will exceed the EUR 5 billion level of 2009, and that our profitability will be satisfactory. Our estimate is based on our order backlog, which contains about EUR 2.6 billion worth of deliveries for 2010, and on the expectation that the recovery of the global economy will continue.

The net sales and profitability estimates are based on Metso’s current market outlook and business scope as well as foreign exchange rates similar to the first quarter.

Previous guidance (from Financial Statements Review 2009, published on February 8, 2010):
“We estimate our net sales in 2010 to remain at about the same EUR 5 billion level as in 2009, and profitability to remain satisfactory. Our estimate is based on our order backlog, which contains about EUR 2.7 billion worth of deliveries for 2010, and on the expectation of continued gradual recovery of global economy. The net sales and profitability estimates are based on Metso’s current market outlook and business scope.”

Metso’s financial reporting in 2010

The Interim Review for January–June 2010 will be published on July 29, and the Interim Review for January–September 2010 on October 28.

Metso is a global supplier of sustainable technology and services for mining, construction, power generation, automation, recycling and the pulp and paper industries. We have about 27,000 employees in more than 50 countries.

For further information, please contact:
Jorma Eloranta, President and CEO, Metso Corporation, tel. +358 204 84 3000
Olli Vaartimo, Executive Vice President and CFO, Metso Corporation, tel. +358 204 84 3010
Johanna Henttonen, Vice President, Investor Relations, Metso Corporation, tel. +358 20 484 3253

Metso, the second largest company in the Tampere region, will relocate its more than one thousand energy and environmental technology experts currently working in Tampere to modern premises in the Rantaperkiö and Lahdesjärvi sections of Tampere. The target is to improve general operating conditions. These arrangements will also mean savings in fixed costs, including rents.

The “Metso House” in Rantaperkiö will become an internationally notable cluster of boiler and automation expertise for bioenergy solutions when the vast majority of Metso’s Power business line employees in Tampere, approximately 440 persons, move there in July 2010.

-Energy is one of Metso’s strategic growth areas. There is growing worldwide demand for know-how related to renewable energy sources, and in Tampere we can get the making of bioenergy solutions in Metso's Power and Automation businesses under one roof. The two business units already have joint customers and development projects. In the Metso House we want to strengthen cooperation and easy collaboration between different business areas, says Kai Mäenpää, Vice President, Capital Projects, Power business line.

The building already seats more than 500 Automation business line employees, so the Metso House will become a joint base of operations for more than one thousand energy and environmental technology experts.
The addition of several hundred commuters will also have an effect on public transportation planning in the area.

Production Competence Center in Lahdesjärvi
Metso’s Power business line also plans to establish a Production Competence Center at the property previously used by Metso’s Tampere Roll Factory in Lahdesjärvi. Relocating the majority of the current production lines of Power business line’s Tampere factory in Messukylä to the new Production Competence Center is planned for the turn of 2011.

The conversion of the Lahdesjärvi factory site for Power business line’s needs means a 6 million euro investment in redemption of the factory property, expansion of the production facilities, as well as production equipment.

- The new location is optimal for the transport of boiler prefabricates and central for personnel mobility. The production premises are planned to be expanded by about 3,000 square meters, says Olli Aalto, General Manager, Tampere Works, Power business line.

In addition to the production function, the new Production Competence Center will develop new and efficient production technology for boiler production and support Metso’s global production network with its production know-how. An extensive personnel training program will be implemented for this purpose.

The factory property was vacated by Metso’s Paper business line in 2009.

Metso is a major employer in the Tampere region

Metso is the second largest company by employees in the Tampere region. It has over 3,100 employees in Tampere and in Valkeakoski.

Metso is a global supplier of sustainable technology and services for mining, construction, power generation, automation, recycling and the pulp and paper industries. We have about 27,000 employees in more than 50 countries. www.metso.com

For further press information, please contact:

Kai Mäenpää, Vice President, Capital Projects, Power business line, tel. +358 20 141 2410
Juha Parvela, Vice President, Production, Power business line, tel. +358 20 141 2600

The Arbitral Tribunal appointed by the Redemption Committee of the Central Chamber of Commerce of Finland has today by its decision confirmed that Metso Corporation has the right to redeem about 2 percent minority shares in Tamfelt Corp. and that Metso has the right to obtain title to the minority shares in Tamfelt by lodging a security approved by the Arbitral Tribunal for the payment of the redemption price and the interest accruing thereon.

Metso has today lodged the security of EUR 5.5 million approved by the Arbitral Tribunal and, therefore, gained title to all the shares in Tamfelt in accordance with Chapter 18, Section 6 of the Finnish Companies Act. After lodging the security, the minority shareholders of Tamfelt being parties to the redemption proceedings are entitled to receive the redemption price and the interest payable thereon.The redemption price and the interest thereon is estimated to be confirmed by the arbitral award in June 2010, at the earliest. Metso will pay the redemption price within a month after the arbitral award has become legally binding, which is estimated to take place in August 2010 the earliest.

Upon application by Tamfelt, NASDAQ OMX Helsinki Ltd (the Helsinki Stock Exchange) has decided that the shares in Tamfelt will be delisted from the official list of the Helsinki Stock Exchange when title to all shares in Tamfelt has been transferred to Metso. The trading and the listing of the Tamfelt shares on the Helsinki Stock Exchange will therefore cease in accordance with a separate release to be published by the Helsinki Stock Exchange.

Metso is a global supplier of sustainable technology and services for mining, construction, power generation, automation, recycling and the pulp and paper industries. We have about 27,000 employees in more than 50 countries. www.metso.com

Further information, please contact:
Johanna Henttonen, Vice President, Investor Relations, Metso Corporation, tel. +358 20 484 3253