Valmet

Valmet Corporation
Public company
Headquarters Helsinki, Finland
Revenue approximately EUR 3 billion (2012)
Number of employees
 11,000
Website http://www.valmet.com

The Valmet Corporation is a Finnish company, a leading global developer and supplier of services and technologies for the pulp, paper and energy industries. It was reborn through the demerger of the pulp, paper and power businesses from Metso Group in December 2013. Valmet is organized around three business lines which are Services, Pulp and Energy, and Paper. The company has operations in around 30 countries and employs 11,000 people. Valmet’s head office is in Espoo, Finland and its shares are listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki Ltd.

History

Roots go back to 1700s

The history of Valmet Corporation goes all the way back to the 1750s. It was then that a small shipyard was established in the Sveaborg fortress on the islands outside Helsinki. In the early 20th century it ended up under the ownership of the Finnish state and became part of Valmet. Tamfelt was established in 1797 and became one of the leading suppliers of technical textiles. These operations are now part of Valmet’s Services business line.

Several of the companies forming part of the new Valmet Corporation date back to the 19th century. The Karlstad Mekaniska Werkstad (KMW) in Sweden began in 1865. Beloit Corporation began in 1858 as a foundry in Wisconsin, US, in the city of Beloit. Sunds Bruk, the predecessor of Sunds Defibrator Industries Ab, was established in Sweden in 1868.

Valmet is born

In 1946, several metal workshops owned by the Finnish state were merged to form the Valtion Metallitehtaat ( English: State Metalworks). At the beginning of 1951, the Valtion Metallitehtaat group was renamed Valmet Oy, and the product range expanded over the years to include ships, aircraft, weapons, locomotives, tractors, marine engines, elevators and, of course, paper machines.

Valmet began the manufacturing of paper machines at the former Rautpohja artillery works in Jyväskylä, Finland in the early 1950s and delivered its first paper machine in 1953. Valmet became an internationally significant paper machine supplier in the mid-1960s, when it delivered several machines to the world’s leading paper industry countries.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Valmet focused increasingly on paper technology. Valmet sold its shipbuilding industry, and the manufacture of rolling stock, elevators and tractors. In turn, Valmet bought Wärtsilä's paper finishing machinery unit, the Swedish company Karlstads Mekaniska Werkstad (KMW) and the board machine manufacturer Tampella Papertech.

1999 - Merger of Valmet and Rauma to form Metso

Metso Corporation was created as a result of the merger of Valmet Corporation and Rauma Corporation (“Rauma”) in July 1999. At the time Valmet was a paper and board machine supplier, while Rauma’s operations were focused on fiber technology, rock crushing and flow control solutions. The merger produced an equipment supplier serving the global process industry. The new combined company was initially given the name Valmet-Rauma Corporation. The name was changed to Metso Corporation in August 1999. Shares in Metso were listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange, which replaced the listings of its predecessor companies.

In 2000, Valmet (at the time part of Metso) acquired Beloit Corporation’s tissue and paper making technology as well as its service operations in the United States and France.

In December 2006, Valmet completed the acquisition of the Pulping and Power businesses from Aker Kvaerner ASA of Norway. This was done in order to improve the company’s capabilities as a full-scope supplier to the pulp and paper industry and also to respond to the promising business opportunities in the power industry and biomass technology.

At the end of 2009, Valmet acquired Tamfelt Corporation, one of the world’s leading suppliers of technical textiles.

2013 - Demerger of Metso to Valmet and Metso

Metso Corporation’s Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) held on October 1, 2013, approved the Board of Directors’ proposed plan for a partial demerger and decided to demerge Metso into two companies: Valmet and Metso. On December 31, 2013 Metso’s Pulp, Paper and Power business was transferred to the new company, Valmet Corporation, and the Mining and Construction and Automation business remained part of Metso.

Organization and management

Valmet is organized around three business lines and five geographical areas. The business lines are Services, Pulp and Energy, and Paper. The areas are North America, South America, EMEA (Europe, Middle-East and Africa), Asia Pacific, and China

Board of Directors

Members of the Board in January 2014:

Executive team

Members of the Executive team in January 2014:

Valmet's products and solutions

Valmet is organized around three business lines which are Services, Pulp and Energy, and Paper. Services business line provides customers with mill improvements, roll and workshop services, spare parts, fabrics, and life-cycle services. Pulp and Energy business line provides technologies and solutions for pulp and energy production as well as for biomass conversion. Paper business line delivers complete board, tissue and paper production lines and machine rebuilds.

Services

The Services business line provides services and solutions to the pulp, paper, energy and certain other process industries. The services and solutions provided include spare, wear and replacement parts and equipment, paper machine clothing, filter fabrics, paper machine roll services, plant improvements, upgrades and technical modifications and expert services to improve plant efficiency and operational effectiveness, as well as plant maintenance outsourcing. The Services business line’s customers include companies mainly in the pulp, paper and energy industries.

Pulp and Energy

The business line’s products can be divided into three main categories: pulp production, energy production and biomass conversion technologies.

Valmet supplies solutions ranging from entire pulping lines to individual production machines and equipment for chemical and mechanical pulp production. Pulp business customers include mechanical and chemical pulp producers as well as companies in the panelboard industry.

Valmet’s energy products include boilers (fluidized bed boilers and boiler plants for the combustion of biomass, sorted waste, recycled fuel and coal, modularized power and heating plants, oil and gas boilers), environmental protection systems (air quality control systems for the pulp, paper and power generation industries) and rebuilds. Customers of energy business are municipalities, utilities and companies in the energy, process, pulp and paper industries.

Biomass conversion technologies enable the conversion of biomass into renewable energy and recyclable products such as paper, pulp, board and tissue.

Paper

Valmet supplies board, tissue and paper machinery and equipment and machine rebuilds for the board, tissue and paper industries. Customers of the Paper business line mainly consist of papermaking companies as well as board and tissue producers.

Historical Valmet products

Weapons

Main article: Patria (company)

Valtion Kivääritehdas was merged into Valmet in 1951. The firearms developed by Valmet include the Rk 62, mod. 78 7.62x51, M82 and the RK 95 TP.

Aerospace

Main tasks were the assembly and licence production of Fouga Magister trainers, Saab Draken fighters and BAe Hawk trainers. The Tampere factory was closed in the 1960s and main part of the aircraft factory became the facility at Kuorevesi.

Indigenously-designed aircraft included the Valmet Vihuri in the 1950s, the Valmet Vinka in the late 1970s and the Valmet Redigo in the mid-1980s.

A line of military trainer aircraft for the Finnish Air Force developed and manufactured by Valmet include the L-70 Vinka and L-90 Redigo.

After the Finnish state privatized Valmet in 1996, the aviation division was detached and integrated into Finnish defence industries, Patria, as Patria Finavitec. The military part is mostly state-owned but EADS owns 27 per cent of Patria.

This period started with the assembly of F/A-18 Hornet fighter aircraft and NH90 helicopters. Civilian work increased in the form of participating in design and manufacture of parts for Airbus aircraft, most notably A380 spoilers.

Valmet-developed Airplanes

Paper mills

Other products were paper mill machinery and process control equipment. Valtion tykkitehdas produced artillery pieces for the Finnish Army along with Tampella AB industries. After World War II production switched to paper mills.

Shipyards

Valmet dockyards were merged with Wärtsilä yards to form Wärtsilä Marine. After the bankruptcy the company re-emerged as Masa Yards, later becoming Aker Finnyards and subsequently Aker Yards.

Rail vehicles

Between 1958 and 1991 Valmet procuded a large number of locomotives, diesel multiple units and electric multiple units for the Finnish State Railways, as well as a number of trams for Helsinki City Transport.

Locomotives

Diesel multiple unit 1952-1971

Diesel multiple units

Electric multiple units

Trams

Trolleybuses

The company also manufactured trolleybuses, between 1948 and 1960, but the total number built was only 52, comprising 23 for Helsinki and 29 for Tampere.[1]

Tractors

Tractors have been produced by Valmet (tractor), both in Brazil and Finland. The producer and brand is now Valtra. The tractor business, though still located in Finland, is owned by AGCO.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Murray, Alan (2000). World Trolleybus Encyclopaedia. p. 99. Yateley, Hampshire, UK: Trolleybooks. ISBN 0-904235-18-1.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Valmet.