Valmet

During its history, Valmet has made ships, trains, aeroplanes, tractors, clocks and weapons. See List of Valmet products.

The company originated in the 1750s when a small shipyard was established in the Sveaborg fortress (now called Suomenlinna) on the islands outside Helsinki, at the time a part of the Swedish province Nyland. 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 Service business line.

Several of the companies forming part of the new Valmet Corporation that was born in the 2010s 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 the city of Beloit, Wisconsin, US. Sunds Bruk, the predecessor of Sunds Defibrator Industries Ab, was established in Sweden in 1868.

In 1946, several metal workshops owned by the Finnish state were merged to form the Valtion Metallitehtaat (English: State Metalworks), abbreviated as ValMet. The new company came to include various metalworks that manufactured war reparations products for the Soviet Union in different parts of Finland. In the year of its establishment, the company had some 6,200 employees.[5]

At the beginning of 1951, the Valtion Metallitehtaat group was renamed Valmet Oy. The various factories, which had previously manufactured warships, aircraft and artillery pieces, spent years finding their new purposes. The conversion of an artillery works into a paper machine manufacturer was a success, but import restrictions created serious obstacles in its route to Western markets. The company's shipyard operations were often –and unfavorably – compared to those of Wärtsilä. The airplane industry was maintained to strengthen national security, but it was not profitable. The branch did, however, make a solid contribution to Valmet's product development and designed, among other things, the straddle carrier used in harbors and manufactured as part of Finland’s war reparations. For decades, the entire conglomerate searched for new fields, such as the manufacture of cars or instrumentation. Modern quality control of production operations entered the Finnish manufacturing industry via Valmet's operations, for example in its car factories. National politics strongly influenced the management and decision-making in the company.

Valmet began manufacturing 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 a paper machine supplier of international importance in the mid-1960s, when it delivered several machines to the world's leading paper industry countries.

In 1961, Valmet had 8,841 employees.[5]

Valmet had shipyards in Turku and Helsinki (first in the Katajanokka district, later in Vuosaari). In 1986, Valmet sold its shipbuilding operations to Wärtsilä Oy, which merged them with its own shipyards to form Wärtsilä Marine. The company was declared bankrupt in 1989. The operations continued under the names of Masa Yards Oy, Kvaerner Masa-Yards Oy, Aker Yards Oy, Aker Finnyards Oy, STX Finland Oy and currently as Meyer Turku Oy.

In connection with the shipyard transaction, Valmet bought from Wärtsilä a paper finishing machinery unit located in Järvenpää, Finland. Together with Valmet's own paper machine manufacturing units, the Järvenpää unit formed Valmet Paperikoneet Oy, which then purchased Tampella's board machine manufacturing operations in 1992.

In 1986, Valmet's gun manufacturing unit in Jyväskylä was transferred under Sako-Valmet Oy, which was later renamed Sako Oy. The company is currently owned by the Italian gun manufacturer Beretta.

Valmet sold its tractor, forest machine and transportation vehicle manufacturing operations to Sisu Auto in 1994. In 1997, Sisu Auto was sold to Partek, and the tractors became known as Valtra Valmet, and later Valtra. In 2002, Kone Corporation bought Partek, and in 2004 it sold Sisu to Suomen Autoteollisuus Oy, formed by a group of Finnish private investors and the company management.

In 1988, Valmet had 17,405 employees.[5]

In July 1999, Valmet Corporation and Rauma Corporation ("Rauma") merged to form a new company. Initially called Valmet-Rauma Corporation, the name was changed to Metso Corporation in August 1999. At the time of the merger, Valmet was a paper and board machine supplier, while Rauma focused on fiber technology, rock crushing and flow control solutions. The merger produced an equipment supplier serving the global process industry. Shares in Metso were listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange, which replaced the listings of its predecessor companies.

In 2000, 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, Metso completed the acquisition of the Pulping and Power businesses from Norwegian company Aker Kvaerner ASA. The acquisition aimed to further improve the company's ability to serve the pulp and paper industries as a turnkey delivery partner, and to respond to the business opportunities created by power generation and biomass technologies. At the end of 2009, Metso acquired Tamfelt Corporation, one of the world’s leading suppliers of technical textiles.

On October 1, 2013, following a meeting, Metso was split into two companies: Valmet and Metso. After the demerger on December 31, 2013, the pulp, paper and power businesses of Metso formed the new Valmet Corporation, while the mining and construction and automation businesses remained with Metso.

Jukka Viinanen was chosen as the chairman of Valmet's board of directors. Viinanen had served as a member of Metso's board from 2008 to 2013, and as the chairman since 2009.[6]

In March 2015, Bo Risberg from Sweden replaced Jukka Viinanen as the chairman of Valmet's board of directors. Previously, Risberg had held a high position at ABB and the position of managing director at the construction supply company Hilti. He also holds positions of trust at Piab Holding, Grundfos Holding and Trelleborg, among others. The Members of the board are vice chairman Mikael von Frenckell, Lone Fønss Schrøder, Friederike Helfer, Pekka Lundmark, Erkki Pehu-Lehtonen and Rogerio Ziviani. Pekka Lundmark later resigned from the board after being nominated CEO of Fortum Corporation.[6][7] In April 2015, Valmet introduced a new business – automation systems. Valmet completed a EUR 340 million transaction with Metso to purchase its process automation system and service unit (PAS). Approximately 80 percent of the unit's customers already did business with Valmet. The acquisition will allow Valmet to steadily increase the business volumes, improving profitability. At the time of the transaction, the PAS unit employed 1,600 people, and its net sales totaled EUR 300 million in 2013.[8][9] In July 2015, Valmet announced the acquisition of Massimiliano Corsini's tissue paper rewinding business. The net sales of the 33-employee unit in Pescia, Italy, has remained steady at EUR 10 million in recent years.[10] In 2015, Valmet's net sales totaled EUR 2.9 billion.[3][4]

In the beginning of 2019, Valmet acquired North American-based GL&V for EUR 113 million. GL&V supplied technologies, upgrades and optimization services, rebuilds, and spare parts for the pulp and paper industry globally, especially in the areas of chemical pulping, stock preparation, papermaking, and finishing. The acquired operations employed about 630 people and the net sales were approximately EUR 160 million.[11] On May 2019, Valmet acquired American J&L Fiber Services Inc., which employed about 100 people in Wisconsin, USA, with net sales of approximately EUR 30 million. J&L Fiber was a manufacturer and provider of refiner segments to the pulp, paper and fiberboard industry. The enterprise value of the acquisition was approximately EUR 51 million. Both of the acquired companies became a part of Valmet’s Services business.[12] On September 2019, Valmet announced building a new pilot facility at its Fiber Technology Center in Sundsvall, Sweden to strengthen the company’s research and development capabilities related to bioenergy, biofuels, and biochemicals. The new pilot facility comprises new pilot equipment called “BioTrac”, which uses Valmet DNA control system.[13]

Valmet's Services business line carries out mill improvements and upgrades, roll services, paper machine clothing services, filter fabrics, spare parts, life cycle services, support, optimization and agreements. Services' customers mostly operate in the fields of pulp, board and paper, and energy production. More than 2,000 of the world's 3,800 pulp and paper mills are Valmet's customers. The business line aims to improve the reliability, cost efficiency, capacity and quality of its customers' operations by solutions that reduce emissions, enhance the safety of operations, and use energy, water and raw materials more efficiently. Valmet has a global network of 70 service centers. The most important market areas of the Services business line are EMEA and North America.[4][16]

Valmet’s biggest competitors globally in the Services market are Andritz and Voith, both of them with a broad offering while other competitors like Sandusky, Albany, Joh. Clouth, Leripa, Aikawa and AstenJohnson, have focused on specific product segments. Other competitors have limited offering compared to Valmet. These include Kadant, SchäferRolls, MWN, Bellmer, Hannecard and Papcel that operate either regionally or globally and Jinni, Wuxi Refine Tech, Richter, Beijing Up-Tech, TTT and AGW, which have strong local positions in their own niche.[17]

Valmet's Automation business line provides automation systems that range from single measurements to mill wide turnkey automation projects. Its main products include analyzers and measuring devices, automation systems, vision systems, quality control systems and performance and service solutions. The main customer groups are the pulp and paper industry, other process industries, energy companies, the marine industry and the oil and gas industries. More than 1,000 power plants use Valmet's process automation products. The unit aims to improve its customers' profitability by enhancing their production operations and improving their energy, material and cost efficiency.[4][18]

Valmet’s biggest competitors in the distributed control system market are ABB, Honeywell, Emerson, Siemens and Yokogawa, both in the pulp and paper automation and energy and process. In the pulp and paper automation area, the main competitors in the quality management system market are ABB, Honewell, Voith, Paperchine, Procemex, Cognex and Isra Vision while ABB and BTG compete with Valmet in the analyzers and measurements market.[17]

Valmet's DNA automation system is used in pulp, paper, energy and other process industries around the world. The system adapts shown information based on the needs of various users and user groups. In 2019, Valmet introduced a new web-based user interface for the system.[19]

Valmet's Pulp and Energy business line provides technologies and solutions for pulp and energy production as well as biomass conversion. The business line's products can be divided into three main categories, as listed below.[4][20]

Pulp mill projects range from the delivery of individual machines and equipment to the supply of complete production lines. Pulp is used to produce different types of paper, including board, tissue and printing paper. It is also used in viscose and hygiene products. Valmet's pulp business customers include mechanical and chemical pulp producers as well as companies in the panelboard industry. In recent years, new customers have been acquired particularly in South America and Asia. Many different machines are required for the various phases of the pulp production process, all of which are provided by Valmet.[4][20]

Valmet is in regular competition with Andritz, the leader of the pulp production market.[17]

Valmet supports its customers' energy solutions by supplying and upgrading boiler plants for the combustion of biomass, fluidized bed boilers that use biomass, coal, recycled materials and sorted waste as fuel, and oil- and gas-fired boilers. Valmet also provides complete heat and power generation systems and power plants, as well as environmental protection systems to control the quality of air. The business line's customers include municipalities, utilities, and companies in the energy, process, pulp and paper industries. The main market areas are the Nordic countries and EMEA.[4][20]

Valmet's main competitors in the energy market are Andritz, Amec Foster Wheeler and Babcock & Wilcox.[17]

Valmet anticipates the increased importance of biomass as a raw material in many industries. Biomass can be used to produce renewable energy and recyclable products such as paper, pulp, board and tissue paper. To prepare for this, Valmet has developed new technologies to enhance the utilization of biomass. Such technologies include the lignin recovery technology LignoBoost, pyrolysis technology to produce renewable bio-oil, and indirect biomass gasification that converts biomass into biomethane, which can be used as a replacement for natural gas.[4][20]

The customers of Valmet's Paper business line operate in the board, tissue and paper industries. Valmet supplies its customers with machines and equipment and carries out machine rebuilds. The customers of the Paper business line manufacture board, tissue and paper, and process them into packaging, tissues, disposable towels, toilet paper, and writing and printing paper. Customers for new board and paper machines are mostly located in China and the Asia-Pacific, while rebuilds are often delivered to Europe and North America.[4][21]

Valmet's main competitors in the paper market are Voith, Andritz, PMP-Paper Machinery Producer and Toscotec. The competitors in the board market as well as in the paper market are Voith, Bellmer and PMT.[17]