Winds of change East Metal

WINDS OF CHANGE

East Metal is a leading manufacturer of high-precision steel components. Philp Yorke spoke to Bent Juul Larsen, the company’s CEO, about its growing involvement in the renewable energy sector and its investments in the latest cutting-edge technology.

East Metal was founded in 1997 as a privately owned production enterprise in Latvia. The company’s structure has proved to be one of the keys to its success with sales and project management located in Denmark and all production carried out at its two state-of-the-art facilities in Latvia.

East Metal supplies extremely high-quality steel components to a number of major companies that are mainly focussed on the wind turbine and transport industries. East Metal is a ‘top drawer’ supplier and outsourcing partner for a steadily increasing number of customers who have discovered that outsourcing to the company optimises their value chain, improves cash flow and minimises capital outlay as well as providing greater production flexibility.

Many of East Metal’s customers have previously produced their own steel components directly for their products, but all have experienced the many disadvantages associated with in-house manufacturing in an industry where it is often impossible to produce to inventory. Thus it is an advantage to use a sub-supplier, which can adapt to its customers demands. New vision brings new horizons

Any disadvantages that existed in the past with outsourcing components have been dispelled by East Metal, which promises to offer, “Outsourcing without compromise”. This new vision has captured the imagination of other leading OEMs and today the package offered by East Metal is fast becoming the industry goldstandard. The company works closely with many of the major wind turbine manufacturers to supply high quality steel components to the most exacting specifications. The transport sector is another major customer group of East Metal. In a situation where one or more ships or vehicles require adaptation to meet special load or lifting requirements, East Metal can develop and produce the specialised equipment required quickly and cost-effectively.

Larsen said. “Our services are being sought throughout Europe and we have increasing interest from the USA because as a medium size, independent company, we are very flexible and able to produce complex, precision components quickly and to a very high standard.

“We are close to our customers and when you make ten of this and ten of that you work as a partner and together we are able to make the price more competitive. For example we have developed a special test centre for our offshore and transport clients as well as for other applications such as heavy lifting test of up to 350 tons. Furthermore, if you have big items, say 10 metres long, we can make them and then test them all in-house. We are trying to develop our offshore business, a sector where we can produce precision components of upto 50 tons with ease”.

Larsen added, “The offshore oil and gas industries offer us new horizons for growth as we are ideally suited to meet the challenges that their high precision components demand. Our two modern production facilities in Latvia each employ around 250 people and we have more than 30,000 square metres of productive manufacturing capacity available. Last year we generated sales of more than DK220 million which is over €30 million, and we expect to be able to achieve growth of around 15 per cent this year”.

“One of our main competitive advantages is the high quality of our welding and

JN Metal provides the following services:

• MAG, TIG welding work (welders are certified according to SFS - EN 287 - 1) • Sawing with bandsaw • Plates cutting • Drilling / pressing • Sand blasting / shot blasting • Grinding works (cast iron, bronze, aluminium, plastic) • Painting works (spray painting, painting by dipping)

Our company is ready to offer its experience in the production of high quality metal constructions. We offer our clients production of ironworks in accordance with their needs.

JN METAL SIA “Metali”, Gardene, Dobele region, LV 3701, LATVIA Mobile: +371 28640401 / +371 26518868 Fax: + 371 63724155 E-mail: jnmetal@inbox.lv

JN Metal has a certified quality system in accordance with ISO 9001:2008

ECO System Service Ltd. (SIA “EKO Sistem Serviss”) is the company specialising in dangerous and non-dangerous waste service. The company ECO System Service Ltd. collects, transports and utilises dangerous and non-dangerous waste throughout Latvia.

The sphere of our business activity: - Identifi cation, collection, transportation, storage and utilisation of dangerous household and industrial waste such as technical lubricants, oils, worn out tires, useless laboratory chemicals, mercury waste, industrial waste containing heavy metals, lacquer/varnish, paint and tar/pitch waste, waste organic solvents, expired medicaments and other medical waste, old electrical equipment/appliances, used batteries and so on.

Rigas street, Kraslava, Kraslavas region, Latvia, LV-5601 Tel./fax: 0037165426373, Mob.: 0037122333270 www.ekosistemserviss.lv E-mail: ekos2@inbox.lv

the advanced processes that we employ and these are produced to the very finest tolerances and tested with advanced ultrasound NDT equipment. We can also paint very big items and have a modern finishing plant for this purpose. Everything we do is done with openness and transparency as we are only interested in developing a long-term relationship that is designed to benefit our customers.”

More complex assignments

Adding to its already impressive catalogue of state-of-the-art machinery, East Metal has complemented its inventory by investing in the latest Fermat CNC milling machinery. This broadens still further the company’s range of competences and services and will enable it to carry out larger and more complex assignments. The new machine by Fermat is a universal boring and milling machine designed with the latest cutting-edge technology that affords the highest precision available on the market today.

East Metal has also continued to invest in other areas of its operations including its surface treatment facilities, which enables it to achieve optimal results in relation to its customer’s specific requirements. The company’s modern factory in Latvia offers a variety of surface treatments including shot blasting, metalising, galvanising and painting. The company guarantees lasting quality and provides painted coatings up to corrosion category C5 and galvanises in accordance with DS/EN ISO 1461 – the industry’s most stringent quality standard. To ensure that all aspects of East Metal’s operations are to the highest quality and to the best ‘LEAN’ standards, the company’s quality control begins when it receives the raw materials from its suppliers and is only complete once the order has been delivered and approved by its customers. There is strict quality control in place at every stage of production under the expert leadership of the Danish quality management team. In addition, many of East Metal’s customers require third party quality control of their processes and finished products and the company is happy to facilitate such requests. Customers are also invited to visit East Metal’s production facilities and monitor the manufacture of their products first hand. Clearly, the formula for success developed by East Metal over the years will continue to drive their sales forward in the years ahead. n