TPI July 2022

Business & market news

Erne Fittings succeeds following strategy adjustments Erne Fittings, a supplier of pipe fittings, has reported tangible successes again following some difficult times. The strategic turnaround initiated in 2020 is showing its first effects and Erne has reported an increase in productivity in the double-digit range and positive earnings once again.

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic and rising energy and labour costs, Erne Fittings, which is headquartered in Schlins, Austria, and active in piping technology, generated a preliminary consolidated group revenue of €61.6mn in 2021. Matthias Kaufmann, CEO of Erne Fittings Group, said: “As the new management team appointed in 2020, we had to start a comprehensive restructuring due to a lack of profitability: It was and is primarily a matter of putting the focus back on key competences, important customers and core markets. So we focused on our strengths and reduced the product portfolio. Today, we supply the specialised pipe trade primarily with our high-quality key products.” Erne Fittings’ mainmarkets are in Europe, the US and the Middle East. Almost 99 per cent of all pipe fittings – T-pieces, reducers and elbows – are exported and used in power plant construction, oil & gas plant construction, the chemical and petrochemical industries and refineries. The fact that the business paid off again last year is also a result of the production processes that were organised in a leaner way in the course of the turnaround. “Compared to the previous year, a double-digit increase in productivity was achieved,” added Mr Kaufmann.

With the new management team of Matthias Kaufmann, CEO, and Bernd Klemisch, CFO, Erne Fittings Group and its 350 employees became profitable once again

Erne Fittings has also been affected by the pandemic-related difficult supply situation, however, the company was largely able to rely on proven delivery networks and thus score points with customers with its reliable and technically correct deliveries. Thanks to the developments in recent years, Erne’s products also contribute to the global energy transition – for example in plants for the generation and distribution of district heating and those for the production of electric vehicles. Today, the company can supply 100 per cent hydrogen compatible fittings. “The need to reduce CO 2 emissions is a major international issue and also of concern to us. That is why our development department has been working intensively for some time on

the definition of a hydrogen standard for the transport of H 2 . We will soon start the first trial production of fittings for hydrogen pipelines,” continued Mr Kaufmann. Bernd Klemisch, CFO of Erne Fittings Group, added: “In 2020, we still suffered a high loss in Schlins. Today, we are not only in calmer waters, but can even show a positive result. “We are very pleased about that and we owe this to the motivation and experience of our employees on the one hand, and to our loyal customers on the other. For this year, due to inflation, we expect a moderate, but again positive growth in revenue of 10 to 15 per cent.” Erne Fittings www.ernefittings.com

Collahuasi awards contract for water pipeline at its copper mine in Chile to Corinth Pipeworks

delivered to Chile in 2022 and 2023 for installation. The pipeline will provide infrastructure for upgrading and safeguarding the long-term output of the copper mine. Corinth Pipeworks www.cpw.gr Collahuasi www.collahuasi.cl

The contract covers approximately 201km of 44" longitudinally submerged arc-welded (LSAW) line pipe, which will also include external 3-layer polyethylene coating, and internal FBE coating. The LSAW pipes will be manufactured in Corinth’s state-of-the-art plant that is based in Greece and will then be transported to Saudi Arabia for internal and external coating, and then

Corinth Pipeworks, a steel pipe manufacturing segment of Cenergy Holdings, has announced that Compañía Minera Doña Inés de Collahuasi has awarded a contract for the supply of 109,000 tons of steel pipes, application of external and internal coating, as well as the supply of induction bends for the P186 Fuente Hídrica Complementaria (FHC) pipeline project to CPW America Co, a wholly owned subsidiary of Corinth Pipeworks.

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July 2022 TUBE PRODUCTS INTERNATIONAL