Valmet Oyj is a Finnish company and a developer and supplier of technologies, automation systems and services for the pulp, paper and energy industries.

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This article contains paid contributions. It may require cleanup to comply with Wikipedia's content policies, particularly neutral point of view. This article contains content that is written like an advertisement. (April 2021)

Valmet Oyj

Type	Julkinen osakeyhtiö
Traded as	Nasdaq Helsinki: VALMT
Industry	Technology & automation (for pulp, paper & energy sectors)
Founded	December 2013
Headquarters	Espoo , Finland
Key people	Mikael Mäkinen (Chairman)[1] Pasi Laine (President and CEO)
Revenue	€3,935 million (2021)[2]
Operating income	€399 million (2021)[2]
Net income	€395 million (2021)[2]
Number of employees	17,000 (April 2022)[2]
Website	www.valmet.com

Valmet has over 200 years of history as an industrial operator. Formerly owned by the State of Finland, Valmet was reborn in December 2013 with the demerger of the pulp, paper and power businesses from Metso Corporation.

Valmet's services include maintenance outsourcing, mill and power plant improvements, and spare parts. The company provides technology for pulp, tissue, board and paper mills and bioenergy plants. Valmet has operations in more than 40 countries and it employs about 17,000 people. Its headquarters are located in Espoo, and it is listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki.[3][4] In 2021, Valmet's net sales totaled €3.9 billion.[2]

History

Historical products

During its history, Valmet has made ships, trains, aeroplanes, tractors, clocks and weapons, as described in the list of Valmet products.

Roots in the 18th century

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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

1946–1998 Creation of Valmet

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.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

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

1999–2012 Valmet and Rauma merge as Metso

In July 1999, Valmet Corporation and Rauma Corporation 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 products. The merger produced an equipment supplier serving the process industry. Shares in Metso were listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange, which replaced the listings of its predecessor companies.^{[citation needed]}

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.[6][7]

2013– Valmet reborn

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.^{[citation needed]}

Jukka Viinanen became 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.[8]

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.[8][9] In April 2015, Valmet introduced an automation systems business. Valmet completed a EUR 340 million transaction with Metso to purchase its process automation system and service unit (PAS). y. At the time of the transaction, the PAS unit employed 1,600 people, and its net sales totaled EUR 300 million in 2013.[10][11] 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.[12]

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, 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.[13] In 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.[14] In 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.[15]

Organization and products

Valmet's operations are divided into five geographical areas: North America, South America, EMEA, China, and Asia-Pacific. Valmet operates in some 40 countries and employs 17,000 people. Valmet's primary production sites are the Rautpohja factory in Jyväskylä, Finland, and the units in Sweden's Karlstad and Sundsvall and China's Xi'an and Shanghai. Rautpohja is the center of paper and board machine engineering operations, the manufacture of components such as headboxes and the assembly of machine deliveries to Europe.[3][16]

Recognitions

• In 2019, Valmet was included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) for the sixth consecutive year. The company was listed both in the Dow Jones Sustainability World and Europe indices.[17]
• In January 2020, Valmet was listed in the CDP's annual A-list among the best companies leading on environmental transparency and performance.[18]

See also

• Valmet Automotive

References

На других языках

[de] Valmet