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GE Energy Financial Services forms new water unit
Filtration Industry Analyst
INDEX/NEWS
Filtration Company Index Ahlstrom 14,15 Air Products APD 7 Alfa Laval 14,15 Amiad Filtration 8 Amsoil 14 Andritz 14 Asahi Kasei 6,15 BBA 8 BWT 14 Camfil Farr 9 Ceco Environmental 15 Clarcor 15 Crane 6,15 Crown Andersen 15 Cummins 7,15 Donaldson 6,11,14,15 Dow Chemical 2,16 Du Pont 15 EaglePicher 1,8 Eaton 15 Ecosphere 5,6 Entegris 11,15 Esco Technologies 15 Fedders 6,8,15 FilmTec 2 Flanders 15 GE 12,15 GEA 14,15 GL&V 7,15 GUD 14,15 H20 Innovation 12,15 H&D Environmental Services 2 Hyflux 15 ITT 6,8,15 Koch Membrane Systems 8 Larox 10,14,15 Lydall 15 3M 15 Mann+Hummel 3,7 Met-Pro 7,14,15 Metso 7 MFRI 2,15 Millipore 2,15 Nitto Denko 15 Nordic Midwesco 2 Pall 6,8,15 Parker Hannifin 14,15 Peerless 15 Pentair 6,15 Pieralisi 8 Porvair 13,14,15 Puradyn 7 Sartorius 13,14,15 Sernagiotto 3 Seychelle Environmental Technologies 15 Siemens 3,14,15 Siemens Water Technologies 1,14 SPX 15 Toray 15 UltraStrip 5,6 USFilter 1 Water Chef 15 Watts Water 6,15 Whatman 14,15 Zenon 3
2
August 2006
MFRI BUYS SOUTH AFRICAN FILTER MANUFACTURER MFRI Inc has acquired H&D Environmental Services, located near Johannesburg, South Africa. The company manufactures filter elements for dust collectors used in coal fired power generation, cement, metals, mining and many other industries. The new subsidiary, which will be renamed Nordic Midwesco Pty Ltd, will serve the growing South African and other regional markets as well as provide fabrication services for Midwesco customers elsewhere in the world. The business currently operates from a 20 000 sq ft facility in a modern industrial park in Nigel, South Africa, about 50 miles from Johannesburg. The former owner of the business, Yolandi Kotze, will continue as the managing director of Nordic Midwesco. “In the current business year we anticipate sales revenue in excess of US$1 million with a modest operating profit, but that revenue is expected to grow as the plant allows the company to pursue market opportunities throughout Africa, and the Near and Middle East,” said David Unger, MFRI’s chairman. “Our network of global raw material sources will provide the South African operation with immediate access to less expensive raw materials. The presence of a competent management team and skilled workforce gives us confidence we can build this business platform to positively impact our worldwide effort to grow MFRI’s Filter Group,” added Unger. In addition to the new facility in Nigel, South Africa the MFRI Filter Group currently has operations in Winchester, Virginia and Cicero, Illinois,
USA, and in Nakskov, Denmark. MFRI recently opened a major fabrication facility near Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates to serve Middle East markets with its specialty piping products. “These expansions are part of our accelerating globalisation effort,” Unger explained.
FILMTEC EXPANSION ON TARGET FOR 2006 COMPLETION The expansion of FilmTec Corp’s state-of-the-art manufacturing facility at Edina, Minnesota, remains on schedule, with some aspects of the expansion being accelerated to meet demand. Construction of the new manufacturing facility, which began in 2004, is scheduled to be completed later this year. “Demand for Filmtec membranes is stronger then ever, and we are increasingly able to meet this demand with shorter lead times,” said Karen Dobson, global market manager, Filmtec membranes. “We have been vigilant with keeping this expansion project on track, accelerating where we could, to continue meeting demand in a marketplace that continues to grow for us.” This new facility, with leading-edge process and manufacturing technology, provides more than double the current square footage of FilmTec’s existing plant, housing additional membrane lines and new fabrication cells, and introduces further automation to FilmTec’s production capabilities. “Not only does this new facility provide us with extra capacity, it also offers us product performance and quality enhancements through process innovations and integrated quality systems. Basically, we can check the membranes at multiple stages throughout the manufacturing process,
pinpoint the source if an issue arises, and provide a consistent, higher performing, quality product,” explained Dobson. The investment also provides the scale of production to enable FilmTec, which is part of the The Dow Chemical Co, to serve the rapidly growing demand for reverse osmosis and nanofiltration (RO/NF) membranes in the coming decade.
MILLIPORE SEALS SEROLOGICALS DEAL Millipore Corp has completed its acquisition of Serologicals, transforming Millipore into a life science industry leader with combined annual revenues of approximately US$1.4 billion. “The strategic combination of Millipore and Serologicals will enable us to leverage the complementary capabilities and resources of both companies,” said Martin Madaus, chairman and chief executive officer of Millipore. The Serologicals acquisition expands Millipore’s Bioscience product portfolio into fast growing markets, and extends the company’s Bioprocess footprint into upstream biopharmaceutical manufacturing. The combined organisation of 5800 employees will also now have significantly expanded R&D capabilities with more than 500 R&D professionals worldwide.
GE ENERGY FINANCIAL SERVICES FORMS NEW WATER UNIT GE Energy Financial Services has set up a team to concentrate on the water market and has already made its first investment: US$18 million in a state-of-the-art wastewater reclamation plant near Atlanta, Georgia.
The new water team offers structured equity and customised debt finance for existing assets and projects under development in the commercial, industrial and municipal infrastructure water, reuse and wastewater treatment markets worldwide. “We’ve entered the water investing market because it’s a major growth opportunity for us, takes advantage of our strengths in project finance and our leveraged balance sheet, and benefits from GE’s expertise in water technology,” said Alex Urquhart, president and chief executive officer of GE Energy Financial Services. “It is also in the spirit of GE’s ecomagination initiative, our pledge to help our customers solve environmental problems, in this case by increasing water supplies.” The water team at GE Energy Financial Services estimates the worldwide water private project finance market at US$50 billion, as water scarcity and quality concerns intensify. “We approach the water market with a long-term investment horizon, backed by GE’s expertise and reputation in industry-leading technology and solutions,” explained Kevin McCarthy, managing director and leader of GE Energy Financial Services’ water team. “We will invest in projects using a wide range of technology.” The team’s first investment, for a 90% limited partnership role, is in the Cauley Creek Water Reclamation Facility, owned by privately held Cauley Creek Water Reclamation LLC. The fouryear-old facility is 30 miles northeast of Atlanta, Georgia. With a capacity of five million gallons per day and a longterm wastewater treatment contract with Fulton County in a public/private partnership, Cauley Creek is the largest satellite water reclamation plant in North America using technology by Zenon, a company that GE acquired in June (see Filtration Industry Analyst, June 2006).
Filtration Industry Analyst
With US$13 billion in assets, GE Energy Financial Services, based in Stamford, Connecticut, invests more than US$3 billion annually in two of the world’s most capital-intensive industries, energy and water.
MANN+HUMMEL INVESTS IN TEST FACILITIES Mann+Hummel Industrial Filters has upgraded its development capacity at its facility in Speyer, Germany. The filtration specialist has recently installed two new test facilities in the engineering department in Speyer - a vibration test rig and a pulsation test rig. This will allow the company to meet customer requirements worldwide for shorter development times and extended inhouse evaluation of products. The vibration test rig with climate chamber simulates the load status of filters and components for construction and agricultural machines. The parts are subjected to vibration while simultaneously the effect of various climate conditions and temperatures on the strength of the part are tested. The Speyer location is the international headquarters of Mann + Hummels’ industrial filters business unit. The site includes the sales, engineering, marketing and production departments.
SIEMENS BUYS ITALY’S SERNAGIOTTO Siemens Industrial Solutions and Services (I&S) Group, has acquired Milan, Italy-based Sernagiotto Technologies SpA, a manufacturer of environmental protection equipment for use in wastewater, sludge, and solid waste treatment. As a licence-holder, Siemens Water Technologies has already sold Sernagiotto’s
dewatering and drying technologies on the North American market via its group company USFilter. With the takeover, Siemens WT can now serve regional biosolids markets, particularly in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. “With Sernagiotto’s products and technologies for sludge drying and dewatering, we have rounded off our portfolio to cover the whole process chain in wastewater treatment,” said Roger Radke, head of Siemens WT. “In addition, our strategy is based on using Sernagiotto as a European regional manufacturing platform for products of various WT business units like biological treatment and clarification, purified water, and engineered products and systems.” Sernagiotto will be renamed Siemens Water Technologies SpA and fall under the operational management of the I&S Water Technologies Division. The business will be integrated into Siemens Italy.
US$19 BN CARTRIDGE MARKET FORECAST IN 2010 The market for cartridges for liquid filtration is rapidly changing mainly due to increased demand in the residential and commercial sectors, while strong growth in biotechnology, electronics, power, desalination and nanotechnology should deliver solid growth in the industrial sector to 2010. These predictions are included in the online continually updated Cartridge Filters: World Markets report, published by the McIlvaine Co (www.mcilvainecompany.com). Metal and string wound cartridges are predicted to remain a small segment of the market going forward. McIlvaine expects that the highest growth will be in cartridges made of carbon, while the biggest use will be in residential water systems including refrigerators. The
second largest segment will be non-wovens. Cartridges using synthetic fibres incorporated into non-woven media are used as pre-filters or as final filters. The third largest segment in 2010 will be membranes. Operators of pharmaceutical and semiconductor plants need ultrapure water and therefore prefer the high efficiency offered by membrane filters. According to McIlvaine, the market is becoming increasingly global, but also increasingly consolidated. Large companies such as GE, Pentair and ITT are pursuing both industrial and residential/commercial sectors worldwide. McIlvaine cites the most recent example of this consolidation as the acquisition of Kinetico, a US residential/commercial water treatment company by Sweden’s Axel Johnson. Because the media is the most important component and because cartridges are disposable, the media suppliers play a major role in the cartridge industry. These media suppliers have been investing heavily in manufacturing facilities in Asia. McIlvaine predicts that more than half the filtration media for cartridges will be produced in Asia by 2015. Local Asian companies will capture a significant share of the lower performance media market, but the big international manufacturers will dominate the high performance media market. McIlvaine expects that the market for cartridges in healthcare will continue to grow at more than 7% per year worldwide. The biotechnology applications within the biopharmaceutical industry will contribute to steady growth in this market segment. Food processing will also be a growth segment. For more information on Cartridge Filters: World Markets, visit www.mcilvainecompany.com/water.html# NO24.
3
NEWS
August 2006
INDEX/NEWS
Filtration Company Index Ahlstrom 14,15 Air Products APD 7 Alfa Laval 14,15 Amiad Filtration 8 Amsoil 14 Andritz 14 Asahi Kasei 6,15 BBA 8 BWT 14 Camfil Farr 9 Ceco Environmental 15 Clarcor 15 Crane 6,15 Crown Andersen 15 Cummins 7,15 Donaldson 6,11,14,15 Dow Chemical 2,16 Du Pont 15 EaglePicher 1,8 Eaton 15 Ecosphere 5,6 Entegris 11,15 Esco Technologies 15 Fedders 6,8,15 FilmTec 2 Flanders 15 GE 12,15 GEA 14,15 GL&V 7,15 GUD 14,15 H20 Innovation 12,15 H&D Environmental Services 2 Hyflux 15 ITT 6,8,15 Koch Membrane Systems 8 Larox 10,14,15 Lydall 15 3M 15 Mann+Hummel 3,7 Met-Pro 7,14,15 Metso 7 MFRI 2,15 Millipore 2,15 Nitto Denko 15 Nordic Midwesco 2 Pall 6,8,15 Parker Hannifin 14,15 Peerless 15 Pentair 6,15 Pieralisi 8 Porvair 13,14,15 Puradyn 7 Sartorius 13,14,15 Sernagiotto 3 Seychelle Environmental Technologies 15 Siemens 3,14,15 Siemens Water Technologies 1,14 SPX 15 Toray 15 UltraStrip 5,6 USFilter 1 Water Chef 15 Watts Water 6,15 Whatman 14,15 Zenon 3
2
August 2006
MFRI BUYS SOUTH AFRICAN FILTER MANUFACTURER MFRI Inc has acquired H&D Environmental Services, located near Johannesburg, South Africa. The company manufactures filter elements for dust collectors used in coal fired power generation, cement, metals, mining and many other industries. The new subsidiary, which will be renamed Nordic Midwesco Pty Ltd, will serve the growing South African and other regional markets as well as provide fabrication services for Midwesco customers elsewhere in the world. The business currently operates from a 20 000 sq ft facility in a modern industrial park in Nigel, South Africa, about 50 miles from Johannesburg. The former owner of the business, Yolandi Kotze, will continue as the managing director of Nordic Midwesco. “In the current business year we anticipate sales revenue in excess of US$1 million with a modest operating profit, but that revenue is expected to grow as the plant allows the company to pursue market opportunities throughout Africa, and the Near and Middle East,” said David Unger, MFRI’s chairman. “Our network of global raw material sources will provide the South African operation with immediate access to less expensive raw materials. The presence of a competent management team and skilled workforce gives us confidence we can build this business platform to positively impact our worldwide effort to grow MFRI’s Filter Group,” added Unger. In addition to the new facility in Nigel, South Africa the MFRI Filter Group currently has operations in Winchester, Virginia and Cicero, Illinois,
USA, and in Nakskov, Denmark. MFRI recently opened a major fabrication facility near Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates to serve Middle East markets with its specialty piping products. “These expansions are part of our accelerating globalisation effort,” Unger explained.
FILMTEC EXPANSION ON TARGET FOR 2006 COMPLETION The expansion of FilmTec Corp’s state-of-the-art manufacturing facility at Edina, Minnesota, remains on schedule, with some aspects of the expansion being accelerated to meet demand. Construction of the new manufacturing facility, which began in 2004, is scheduled to be completed later this year. “Demand for Filmtec membranes is stronger then ever, and we are increasingly able to meet this demand with shorter lead times,” said Karen Dobson, global market manager, Filmtec membranes. “We have been vigilant with keeping this expansion project on track, accelerating where we could, to continue meeting demand in a marketplace that continues to grow for us.” This new facility, with leading-edge process and manufacturing technology, provides more than double the current square footage of FilmTec’s existing plant, housing additional membrane lines and new fabrication cells, and introduces further automation to FilmTec’s production capabilities. “Not only does this new facility provide us with extra capacity, it also offers us product performance and quality enhancements through process innovations and integrated quality systems. Basically, we can check the membranes at multiple stages throughout the manufacturing process,
pinpoint the source if an issue arises, and provide a consistent, higher performing, quality product,” explained Dobson. The investment also provides the scale of production to enable FilmTec, which is part of the The Dow Chemical Co, to serve the rapidly growing demand for reverse osmosis and nanofiltration (RO/NF) membranes in the coming decade.
MILLIPORE SEALS SEROLOGICALS DEAL Millipore Corp has completed its acquisition of Serologicals, transforming Millipore into a life science industry leader with combined annual revenues of approximately US$1.4 billion. “The strategic combination of Millipore and Serologicals will enable us to leverage the complementary capabilities and resources of both companies,” said Martin Madaus, chairman and chief executive officer of Millipore. The Serologicals acquisition expands Millipore’s Bioscience product portfolio into fast growing markets, and extends the company’s Bioprocess footprint into upstream biopharmaceutical manufacturing. The combined organisation of 5800 employees will also now have significantly expanded R&D capabilities with more than 500 R&D professionals worldwide.
GE ENERGY FINANCIAL SERVICES FORMS NEW WATER UNIT GE Energy Financial Services has set up a team to concentrate on the water market and has already made its first investment: US$18 million in a state-of-the-art wastewater reclamation plant near Atlanta, Georgia.
The new water team offers structured equity and customised debt finance for existing assets and projects under development in the commercial, industrial and municipal infrastructure water, reuse and wastewater treatment markets worldwide. “We’ve entered the water investing market because it’s a major growth opportunity for us, takes advantage of our strengths in project finance and our leveraged balance sheet, and benefits from GE’s expertise in water technology,” said Alex Urquhart, president and chief executive officer of GE Energy Financial Services. “It is also in the spirit of GE’s ecomagination initiative, our pledge to help our customers solve environmental problems, in this case by increasing water supplies.” The water team at GE Energy Financial Services estimates the worldwide water private project finance market at US$50 billion, as water scarcity and quality concerns intensify. “We approach the water market with a long-term investment horizon, backed by GE’s expertise and reputation in industry-leading technology and solutions,” explained Kevin McCarthy, managing director and leader of GE Energy Financial Services’ water team. “We will invest in projects using a wide range of technology.” The team’s first investment, for a 90% limited partnership role, is in the Cauley Creek Water Reclamation Facility, owned by privately held Cauley Creek Water Reclamation LLC. The fouryear-old facility is 30 miles northeast of Atlanta, Georgia. With a capacity of five million gallons per day and a longterm wastewater treatment contract with Fulton County in a public/private partnership, Cauley Creek is the largest satellite water reclamation plant in North America using technology by Zenon, a company that GE acquired in June (see Filtration Industry Analyst, June 2006).
Filtration Industry Analyst
With US$13 billion in assets, GE Energy Financial Services, based in Stamford, Connecticut, invests more than US$3 billion annually in two of the world’s most capital-intensive industries, energy and water.
MANN+HUMMEL INVESTS IN TEST FACILITIES Mann+Hummel Industrial Filters has upgraded its development capacity at its facility in Speyer, Germany. The filtration specialist has recently installed two new test facilities in the engineering department in Speyer - a vibration test rig and a pulsation test rig. This will allow the company to meet customer requirements worldwide for shorter development times and extended inhouse evaluation of products. The vibration test rig with climate chamber simulates the load status of filters and components for construction and agricultural machines. The parts are subjected to vibration while simultaneously the effect of various climate conditions and temperatures on the strength of the part are tested. The Speyer location is the international headquarters of Mann + Hummels’ industrial filters business unit. The site includes the sales, engineering, marketing and production departments.
SIEMENS BUYS ITALY’S SERNAGIOTTO Siemens Industrial Solutions and Services (I&S) Group, has acquired Milan, Italy-based Sernagiotto Technologies SpA, a manufacturer of environmental protection equipment for use in wastewater, sludge, and solid waste treatment. As a licence-holder, Siemens Water Technologies has already sold Sernagiotto’s
dewatering and drying technologies on the North American market via its group company USFilter. With the takeover, Siemens WT can now serve regional biosolids markets, particularly in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. “With Sernagiotto’s products and technologies for sludge drying and dewatering, we have rounded off our portfolio to cover the whole process chain in wastewater treatment,” said Roger Radke, head of Siemens WT. “In addition, our strategy is based on using Sernagiotto as a European regional manufacturing platform for products of various WT business units like biological treatment and clarification, purified water, and engineered products and systems.” Sernagiotto will be renamed Siemens Water Technologies SpA and fall under the operational management of the I&S Water Technologies Division. The business will be integrated into Siemens Italy.
US$19 BN CARTRIDGE MARKET FORECAST IN 2010 The market for cartridges for liquid filtration is rapidly changing mainly due to increased demand in the residential and commercial sectors, while strong growth in biotechnology, electronics, power, desalination and nanotechnology should deliver solid growth in the industrial sector to 2010. These predictions are included in the online continually updated Cartridge Filters: World Markets report, published by the McIlvaine Co (www.mcilvainecompany.com). Metal and string wound cartridges are predicted to remain a small segment of the market going forward. McIlvaine expects that the highest growth will be in cartridges made of carbon, while the biggest use will be in residential water systems including refrigerators. The
second largest segment will be non-wovens. Cartridges using synthetic fibres incorporated into non-woven media are used as pre-filters or as final filters. The third largest segment in 2010 will be membranes. Operators of pharmaceutical and semiconductor plants need ultrapure water and therefore prefer the high efficiency offered by membrane filters. According to McIlvaine, the market is becoming increasingly global, but also increasingly consolidated. Large companies such as GE, Pentair and ITT are pursuing both industrial and residential/commercial sectors worldwide. McIlvaine cites the most recent example of this consolidation as the acquisition of Kinetico, a US residential/commercial water treatment company by Sweden’s Axel Johnson. Because the media is the most important component and because cartridges are disposable, the media suppliers play a major role in the cartridge industry. These media suppliers have been investing heavily in manufacturing facilities in Asia. McIlvaine predicts that more than half the filtration media for cartridges will be produced in Asia by 2015. Local Asian companies will capture a significant share of the lower performance media market, but the big international manufacturers will dominate the high performance media market. McIlvaine expects that the market for cartridges in healthcare will continue to grow at more than 7% per year worldwide. The biotechnology applications within the biopharmaceutical industry will contribute to steady growth in this market segment. Food processing will also be a growth segment. For more information on Cartridge Filters: World Markets, visit www.mcilvainecompany.com/water.html# NO24.
3
NEWS
August 2006