The appeal of steel Ruukki

THE APPEAL OF STEEL

Finland-based steel producer Ruukki has an impressive list of international project wins and ongoing expansion plans. Business director Esko Vattulainen spoke to Industry Europe’s Emma-Jane Batey.

Headquartered in Helsinki and present in 27 countries worldwide, Ruukki is in a constant state of growth and development, with new locations, new projects and new employees joining the 11,700-strong workforce on an ongoing basis.

Well-known for its high-quality specialist products, Ruukki provides metal-based components and integrated systems to construction, and the company has a wide selection of metal products and services.

Business director Esko Vattulainen is responsible for the project business, and tells Industry Europe: “The last five years have seen Ruukki’s growth continue strongly, even though there were some difficult times during the downturn in 2008 and 2009. Since the end of 2009 the market has been good in some areas such as eastern Europe and Russia. We are more than happy with our current structure and plan to maximise the opportunities that are available in our current markets, as well as being open-minded to new opportunities.”

Concept to completion

Within Ruukki there are three complementary divisions working together to offer a complete integrated mining and metals service. Joining the longest standing division of Ruukki Metals, Ruukki Engineering and Ruukki Construction combine to deliver new projects with new opportunities not previously available to the company. Mr Vattulainen explained, “The three divisions allow us to move beyond being a steel producer and into the complete project sphere. Our strategy was to make sure that the engineering and construction divisions eventually grew bigger than the metals division so that we could continue to produce metals to the same high standard that we’re famous for, but to also specify and use those metals in high-spec projects that would benefit from our expertise and complete metals understanding.”

With this aim being achieved, the engineering and construction divisions at Ruukki now represent a larger proportion of its turnover than the production of metals. Mr Vattulainen is specifically focused on the construction division, which itself has three separate business units. The materials and services unit offers products such as steel frames, facades and roofs, including all related design, erection and installation. The component business unit provides the necessary steel items such as steel sheets required for the installation process. The infrastructure business unit is focused on the smaller production projects and is able to call on the extensive project experience across the company.

Local and international

The main geographical market areas for the contruction business continue to be in northern Europe, with a very strong performance region-wide. The company’s activities in eastern Europe and Russia have developed apace, with a growing number of projects in western Europe. Mr Vattulainen continued, “Eastern Europe is an important market for us, supported by our network of production facilities with many in Finland, one in Poland, Russia and Romania. We also have a number of smaller local production sites in countries such as Norway and Lithuania, which allows us to deliver both a local and an international service. Some production sites just service their own local projects, but the Finnish site for example backs up these secondary sites with whatever they need.”

Ruukki plans to continue to utilise this network of production facilities, in order to ensure that its costs remain competitive and its quality remains high. The company is committed to making sure that each production facility plays to its strengths, with intense training for its workforce and a close understanding of its technical capabilities. With Ruukki continually adding to its workforce with highly experienced specialists, enthusiastic graduates and technically advanced production workers, the company is clear that all of its sites are at the top of their game.

Building stronger projects

Recent project wins highlight Ruukki’s achievements. The company has recently won a €13 million-plus steel structure contract for the Kaunisvaara mine in Sweden and in July it made the first of many deliveries of steel structures to the offshore wind farm project in the North Sea for Kvaerner Verdal AS.

In the construction business Ruukki’s plans for the coming years see it dedicated to continuing its geographical focus on its existing northern Europe market whilst building up its activities in eastern and western Europe and Russia. Rather than aiming to work in a large number of countries, Mr Vattulainen explained how the company prefers to focus on “the best countries for our construction project business, where we can add value for our customers and utilise the cost and technical advantages of our production facilities”. n