Metso's new Valve Technology Center in the Helsinki region in Finland is officially opened. The office building and purpose built factory are home base to 800 automation professionals. Production is working in two shifts on a record pace.
The investment decision for the Helsinki center was made in 2008 when the market situation looked uncertain.
The fastest growing markets of the technology center specialized in manufacturing of engineered industrial valves are Middle East and China.
Mr Markku Simula president of Flow Control business in Metso's Automation business line said that "Our current deliveries have increased by half compared with the corresponding period in the previous year. Production is more than 2,500 valves monthly, and volumes will be further increased order to meet the growing global demand."
Mr Simula said that especially companies in Middle East, Brazil and in China have recently invested at an accelerating pace to new production facilities. The customers include major global companies, such as Saudi Aramco, ExxonMobil, Petrobras and Stora Enso.
Mr Markku Simula said that "Metso is the leading valve solutions and services provider. We have a strong, established market position in the oil & gas, pulp & paper, refining and chemical petrochemical industries. Our new production and testing facilities allow us to further improve our services to our customers with faster deliveries as well as with a wider product and application scope."
Mr Markku Simula emphasizes that "Nevertheless, we went ahead with our plans in Finland and China. This is a strong message for our customers globally. We are in the business with a long term strategy to continuously improve our products and services. The decisions have proved to be excellent. The newly started facility in Finland reaches record level production, and the Shanghai center has been operating for more than one year also at record level, as it is located in the midst of the world's fastest growing valve market."
Mr Markku Simula ascertains that "Our customers are facing increasing operating pressures and more advanced applications. We have a long tradition to supply valves for tough conditions, so we are ready to meet this demand."
The new Helsinki facility further improves Metso's possibilities for product development. For example, there is a new flow laboratory for valve testing and a new expanded cryogenic testing facility for the LNG industry.
Building a new facility in Finland is in line with Metso's investment decisions of previous years to develop Metso's valve services globally. In 2010, Metso opened a state of the art facility in Shanghai, and is currently expanding its valve production premises in the US. Metso also has high class industrial valve facilities in Brazil and Germany.
