Alfa Laval

Alfa Laval AB

Type	Publicly traded Aktiebolag
Traded as	OMX: ALFA
Industry	Manufacturing, engineering and service
Founded	1883 (1883)[1]
Headquarters	Lund, Sweden
Key people	Lars Renström (President and CEO), Anders Narvinger (Chairman)
Revenue	SEK 28.652 billion (2011)[2]
Operating income	SEK 4.691 billion (2011)[2]
Profit	SEK 3.251 billion (2011)[2]
Total assets	SEK 34.503 billion (2011)[2]
Total equity	SEK 19.359 billion (2011)[2]
Number of employees	16,050 (end 2012)
Website	www.alfalaval.com

An Alfa Laval centrifuge used in olive oil production in Greece

Alfa Laval AB is a Swedish company, founded in 1883 by Gustaf de Laval and Oscar Lamm.^[1] The company, which started in the separation of solutions, now deals in the production of specialized products and solutions for heavy industry. The products are used to heat, cool, separate and transport such products as oil, water, chemicals, beverages, foodstuffs, starch and pharmaceuticals.

Alfa Laval is headquartered in Lund, Sweden and has subsidiary companies in over 35 countries around the world, including South Africa, Denmark, Italy, India, Japan, China, Netherlands, and the United States. In 2012, Alfa Laval had a global workforce of 16,419 employees and revenue of $4,520.96 million.^[3] Alfa Laval is a heavy industry company that focuses on the large-scale operations, such as the Marine, Energy, and Food industries. As well as selling equipment, Alfa Laval contracts out to provide individual solutions to the demands of heavy industry, in the form of "Orders".

Advert from 1899

Alfa Laval in the Maritime Industry

Alfa Laval is known in the Maritime Industry as producer of maritime equipment. Alfa Laval manufactures valves, pumps, heat exchangers, evaporators, distillers, oil separators, filters, and all other hardware vital to the operation of the a ship’s engine room. As of 2011, Alfa Laval consolidated its Marine, Off-shore, and Diesel divisions into one, Marine & Diesel, division in an effort to simplify logistics and administration of its marine wing.^[4]

Alfa Laval introduced PureBallast in 2006, which is the world's first commercially sold water treatment system for the Maritime Industry. It also is the first chemical-free solution to ballast water treatment. It works by filtering the water inside the ballasts tanks though an enhanced AOT (Advanced Oxidation Technology) process. The process of PureBallast creates free radicals that destroy the membrane of biological contaminates, such as plankton. Alfa Laval has updated its PureBallast system to Pure Ballast 3.0 that adheres to the new IMO (International Maritime Organization) regulations.^[5] South Korea, the largest ship building nation in the world, has placed orders for the new ballast system.^[6]

History

The company was founded in 1883 as AB Separator and in 1938 produced its first heat exchanger. The name Alfa-Laval was introduced in 1963, spelled with a hyphen until 1993. (The "Alfa" is derived from the alpha disc, or Alfa-disc, an invention by Clemens von Bechtolsheim that was acquired by Separator in 1889.^[7]) In 1991 Alfa-Laval was acquired by Tetra Pak and between 1993 and 2000 Alfa Laval was a part of the Tetra Laval Group. In 1993, Alfa Laval Agri, a company producing dairy farming equipment, was split from Alfa Laval. When Alfa Laval was sold, Alfa Laval Agri remained a part of the Tetra Laval Group and was renamed DeLaval, after the company's founder.

Alfa Laval now divides its operations between equipment (capital sales) and process technology (contracts with longer duration).

Recently, Alfa Laval has been working towards the consolidation of its manufacturing of boilers. By 2014, Alfa Laval should have all its manufacturing of boilers located in Qingdao, China. The boiler manufacturing plant in Hai Phong, Vietnam have been shut down in 2013 due to production consolidation.^[8]

As of 2012, Alfa Laval has a total of 32 manufacturing facilities: 15 of which are located in Europe, 9 in Asia, 6 in the United States, and 2 in Latin America.^[8]

In 1983, Alfa Laval entered the biotechnology industry by offering separators that can isolate genetic samples.^[9]

Midsummer 2008 there was a theft at the facility at Lund where 80 metric ton of titan were stolen using two trailers who drove to Poland.

International operations

An Alfa Laval cream separator.

Manufacturing at Alfa Laval is carried out in several countries including Sweden, India, China, the UK, and USA.

Canada

In Canada, Alfa Laval has had a presence for over 100 years, previously as D-Laval, which would provide such services to farmers as assisting them in the storage of their milk and providing cream separators. Alfa Laval is headquartered in Toronto and in 2009 opened a service centre in Edmonton, Alberta. In late 2010, staff in the Canadian operations numbered 74.

United States

Alfa Laval has been present in the United States of America for more than 120 years - marketing and supplying a broad range of heat exchangers, separators, decanters, pumps, valves and fittings to customers in a wide range of market segments. The brand is known for such products as Tri-Clover, Contherm, Sharples, Merco, Standard Refrigeration, Ketema and Champ. There are 710 employees in the US - with 15 locations including Richmond, VA; Warminster, PA; Kenosha, WI; Sacramento, CA; Wood Dale, IL; Carter Lake, IA and Sarasota, FL - as well as an International distribution center in Indianapolis, IN. There are seven service and repair centers. Heat exchangers, fluid handling equipment and centrifuges are manufactured in the USA.^[10]

United Kingdom

Alfa Laval's head office is located in Camberley, Surrey. Their pumps and manufacturing division has offices in Eastbourne, with further sales offices in Birmingham, Newcastle-under-Lyme and Aberdeen.^[11]

Alfa Laval’s major competitors

There are two major competitors to Alfa Laval that offer equipment and solutions for heavy industry: Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction based in South Korea, and Harbin Power Equipment based in China.

As of 2012, Doosan leads the industry with 8,654.85 million dollars in global sales. Although Doosan only has 6,871 employees, (compared to Alfa Laval’s 16,419 employees), it has a strong international presence, especially in the rapidly developing Middle East.^[12][13] Doosan competes with Alfa Laval in nearly every sector, - coal boilers, gas turbines, steam generators, heat exchangers, etc. South Korea is the ship building capital of the world and its government protects Doosan with stimulus funds and legislation.^[14]

Alfa Laval is the second leader with 4,520.96 million dollars in global sales.^[12] Western Europe and the United States continue to be Alfa Laval main customers. The two Asian companies, Doosan and Harbin, present a huge challenge to Alfa Laval and its growth in the Asian market.^[15] Alfa Laval’s products tend to be more expensive than its foreign counterparts. However, third party suppliers, such as ShipServ.com, rate Alfa Laval products higher than all others.

Harbin is the largest of the three competitors with 20,106 employees, however, trails behind with 4,121.19 million dollars in global sales.^[16] The Chinese economy is slowing, and attempts to expand sales to Africa and South America has not been as successful as the General Manager of Harbin, Wu Weizhang has hoped.^[17] In 2011, Harbin went private with the help of the China Development Bank Corporation, allowing the senior leadership team to focus on global competitiveness rather than the liquid asset of corporate shares. Harbin competes with Alfa Laval in the production of industrial rotary motors and other equipment required of the energy industry.^[18]

References

OMX Stockholm 30 companies of Sweden ABB Alfa Laval Assa Abloy AstraZeneca Atlas Copco Boliden Electrolux Ericsson Getinge Hennes & Mauritz Investor AB Kinnevik Lundin Petroleum Modern Times Group Nokia Nordea Sandvik SCA SEB Securitas Skanska SKF SSAB Svenska Handelsbanken Swedbank Swedish Match Tele2 TeliaSonera Volvo