Alfa Laval targets new growth areas
24 Jun 2006
Alfa Laval has identified district cooling, LNG (liquefied natural gas) and renewable energy projects as three "booming" new markets that will help drive its growth over the next few years.
"Demand for district cooling is growing faster than district heating, mainly because of rising living standards in the Middle East and Asia," according to president and CEO Lars Renstrom, speaking at a press conference at last month's Achema exhibition in Frankfurt.
The Alfa Laval boss cited a recent order from a Saudi central cooling project for 50 of its T50 heat exchangers (pictured), each weighing 20 tonnes and employing a titanium construction to avoid salt-water corrosion.
In the LNG arena, Renstrom noted increasing output from Qatar, the world's largest gas field, where the gas is extracted, liquefied and exported to the US, Asia and Europe. The UK, he said, represents the main market in Europe, due to its established infrastructure and a current decline in North Sea supplies.
"LNG is a very interesting area with massive investment going into importing LNG, including a lot of (projects for) LNG carrier ships."
Renstrom described renewable energy, particularly biodiesel, as another key growth area for Alfa Laval. This emerging market, he noted, was being driven both by high energy costs and political issues.
While the market for biodiesel is still developing, Renstrom noted that the EU is moving to increase the content of renewable sources in fuel to 5.75% by 2011, which will require 80 new ethanol plants.
Alfa Laval group continues to target new applications for its core technologies; centrifugal separation and heat exchangers. The company, said Renstrom, had an "excellent global position" with sales of Euro1.8 billion in 2005, split between Europe 50%, Asia 30% and the Americas 20%.
