Etteplan and Valmet to expand their engineering cooperation

Image: Valmet

Etteplan and Valmet have agreed that a significant part of the engineering of Valmet’s mechanical wood handling equipment will transfer to Etteplan. Going forward, Etteplan will supply wood handling equipment engineering services to Valmet’s power plant, biopower plant, pulp, paper and panel mill customers worldwide.

The new cooperation agreement is based on the offshoring model offered by Etteplan, according to which part of the engineering work will be carried out at Etteplan’s Chinese units. Thanks to China’s lower cost level, this service model will increase the cost competitiveness of the customer’s product.

Valmet is one of Etteplan’s oldest cooperation partners also in terms of utilizing offshoring. The companies have cooperated for more than 30 years in, among other things, paper machine engineering and technical documentation related to Valmet’s machinery and equipment. Wood handling engineering further expands the cooperation between the two companies.

– Our goal is to continuously improve our competitiveness, an area in which Etteplan has played a major role. The decisive factor for us was Etteplan’s ability to produce the service cost-effectively in China, where Valmet have gained very positive experiences with Etteplan for many years, says Ari Havu, Director of Woodhandling technology unit at Valmet.

– For us, expanding our cooperation in wood handling equipment engineering is an important indication of Valmet’s customer satisfaction and our seamless collaboration. Together with Valmet, we have achieved major results with our service model based on using our cost-effective Chinese engineering units, says Veikko Lamminen, Etteplan’s SVP, Operations, Finland.