09.08.22
Helsinki, Finland
www.ahlstrom.com
2021 Nonwovens Sales: $1.6 billion
Key Personnel
Hans Sohlström, president and CEO; Markus Westerkamp, chief operating officer and EVP Healthcare (Interim); Daniele Borlatto, EVP Filtration division; Emanuelle Picard, EVP Building Materials division; Mark Ushpol, EVP Food & Consumer Packaging division; Sophie Haan, EVP Technical Materials
Plants
Belgium: Malmedy; Brazil: Louveira; China: Binzhou, Longkou; Finland: Karhula, Mikkeli, Tampere; France: Bousbecque, Brignoud, Orleans, Pont-Audemer, Saint-Severin; Germany: Osnabrück, Bärenstein; India: Mundra; Italy: Turin, Fabriano; Russia: Tver; South Korea: Hyon Poong; Sweden: Ställdalen, Falun; U.K.: Chirnside, Radcliffe; U.S.: Bethune, SC; Madisonville, KY; Mt. Holly Springs, PA; Taylorville, IL; Windsor Locks, CT
Processes
Wetlaid (Trinitex), microglass, nanotechnology (Disruptor), composites, creping/micrexing, spunmelt/spunbond, parchmentizing, coating, calendaring
Major Markets
Transportation filtration, diagnostic filtration, water filtration, wall coverings, building, automotive, food packaging, beverage, medical, flooring and masking tape
Following the divestment of the majority of its Décor business, which is scheduled for the third quarter this year, Ahlstrom-Munksjo will change its business name back to Ahlstrom. At the same time, the company will accelerate its pace to become a preferred sustainable specialty materials company, capitalizing on megatrends such as higher air/water quality requirements, restrictions on the use of harmful chemicals, increasing health awareness as well as plastic-to-paper substitution.
“We are now accelerating the pace of strategy execution to build a stronger company for a sustainable future and capture the significant opportunities both to grow and improve profitability. Our strategic ambition for 2025 is to become the leader in combining fibers into performance materials that serve our purpose to Purify and Protect, with Every Fiber, for a Sustainable World. Sharper strategic focus, more ambitious sustainability targets, and a tailored operating model will enable us to effectively address attractive and distinctive end markets to further enhance our competitive advantages and value creation for our stakeholders,” says president and CEO Hans Sohlström.
To allow it to continue to successfully manage a broad portfolio of attractive niche businesses, supported by a tailored operating model, effective as of July 1, 2022, the group serves five growing and distinctive end markets, also forming the basis for five divisions—filtration, food and consumer packaging, healthcare, building material and technical materials—allowing for significant organic and inorganic growth. The divisions will be supported by global functions and centers of excellence for scale, synergies and excellence.
Within the filtration segment, Ahlstrom will continue to benefit from an ambitious investment strategy. Most recently, the company started production on additional capacity in both filtration and energy storage materials at its plant in Turin, Italy. By successfully expanding manufacturing facilities, Ahlstrom is making a strong commitment to customers in both the high performance filtration and energy storage markets.
The new machine at the Turin plant is a state-of-the-art line specifically designed to produce glass microfiber media. The line will serve applications where glass microfiber media is required, supporting growth initiatives in industrial filtration as well as in Absorbed Glass Matt (AGM), a key component in Lead Acid Batteries. In addition, the new line will also be able to deliver online saturated filter media, supporting the increasing global demand for filtration media.
“This investment supports our company’s strategic ambition to maintain a leading position in growth niches of the global filtration markets such as cleanrooms, HVAC and hydraulic applications,” says Giuseppe Costa, vice president, Filtration & Performance Solutions Asia and EMEA. “Additionally, the company is making a strong step into the energy storage market by bringing onstream a platform which will be fully qualified for the manufacture of AGM media.”
This investment follows the restart of one of the saturators in the Turin plant, enabling Ahlstrom to deliver additional capacity and effectively support customer demands for high-performance filtration media.
Other recent investments in the filtration business include a new saturator in Madisonville, KY, a machine rebuild in Binzhou, China, capacity expansions in Fabriano, Italy and Malmedy, Belgium and a new microglass line in Turin.
The investment supports Ahlstrom’s strategic ambition to maintain a leading position in selected niches of the global fiber-based solutions market that offer positive growth outlook and are supported by sustainable market drivers. The company has responded to growing customer demand by successively expanding its filtration manufacturing capabilities globally through several new and expansionary investments in the past few years.
Another area of interest for Ahlstrom is the electric vehicles market. In December, the company announced it would create products solely dedicated to filtration media solutions for electric vehicles. The new solutions are for filtration solutions for cabin air, transmission and cooling systems.
“I am very pleased to introduce our new filtration solution for fuel cell air intake,” says Cedric Vallet, head of Business Development, Industrial Filtration & New Vehicles. “By protecting fuel cells from harmful gases and particulates, we ensure the effective operation of the fuel cell over the entire service lifetime of the vehicle.”
“Through increasing fuel cell lifetime and minimizing the use of catalysts, we are offering new filtration solutions which optimize cost/benefit for our customers,” he adds.
Within its wallcovering business, Ahlstrom remains on track in expanding production capacity at its Malmedy plant in Belgium, specialized in the production of nonwovens for wallcovering. The €10 million investment, announced in January 2020, will double the capacity of the plant and diversify the production to also cover filtration materials. The investment will create some 40 new jobs locally.
In other investment news, Ahlstrom is investing €15 million for new technology and converting its existing boilers at its Mosinee and Rhinelander plants in Wisconsin to reduce its carbon emissions and landfill waste.
These investments at the Mosinee production plant will enable a reduction in its carbon footprint by an estimated 20% and a reduction of landfill waste by more than 10%. The project is estimated to be completed at the end of the second quarter in 2023.
In addition, the Rhinelander production plant is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by an estimated 14% and landfill waste by more than 50%.
In 2022, Ahlstrom updated its sustainability targets and committed to The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), which is a global body enabling businesses to set emissions reduction targets to be in line with new climate science.
For Ahlstrom's 2020 top company profile, click here.
www.ahlstrom.com
2021 Nonwovens Sales: $1.6 billion
Key Personnel
Hans Sohlström, president and CEO; Markus Westerkamp, chief operating officer and EVP Healthcare (Interim); Daniele Borlatto, EVP Filtration division; Emanuelle Picard, EVP Building Materials division; Mark Ushpol, EVP Food & Consumer Packaging division; Sophie Haan, EVP Technical Materials
Plants
Belgium: Malmedy; Brazil: Louveira; China: Binzhou, Longkou; Finland: Karhula, Mikkeli, Tampere; France: Bousbecque, Brignoud, Orleans, Pont-Audemer, Saint-Severin; Germany: Osnabrück, Bärenstein; India: Mundra; Italy: Turin, Fabriano; Russia: Tver; South Korea: Hyon Poong; Sweden: Ställdalen, Falun; U.K.: Chirnside, Radcliffe; U.S.: Bethune, SC; Madisonville, KY; Mt. Holly Springs, PA; Taylorville, IL; Windsor Locks, CT
Processes
Wetlaid (Trinitex), microglass, nanotechnology (Disruptor), composites, creping/micrexing, spunmelt/spunbond, parchmentizing, coating, calendaring
Major Markets
Transportation filtration, diagnostic filtration, water filtration, wall coverings, building, automotive, food packaging, beverage, medical, flooring and masking tape
Following the divestment of the majority of its Décor business, which is scheduled for the third quarter this year, Ahlstrom-Munksjo will change its business name back to Ahlstrom. At the same time, the company will accelerate its pace to become a preferred sustainable specialty materials company, capitalizing on megatrends such as higher air/water quality requirements, restrictions on the use of harmful chemicals, increasing health awareness as well as plastic-to-paper substitution.
“We are now accelerating the pace of strategy execution to build a stronger company for a sustainable future and capture the significant opportunities both to grow and improve profitability. Our strategic ambition for 2025 is to become the leader in combining fibers into performance materials that serve our purpose to Purify and Protect, with Every Fiber, for a Sustainable World. Sharper strategic focus, more ambitious sustainability targets, and a tailored operating model will enable us to effectively address attractive and distinctive end markets to further enhance our competitive advantages and value creation for our stakeholders,” says president and CEO Hans Sohlström.
To allow it to continue to successfully manage a broad portfolio of attractive niche businesses, supported by a tailored operating model, effective as of July 1, 2022, the group serves five growing and distinctive end markets, also forming the basis for five divisions—filtration, food and consumer packaging, healthcare, building material and technical materials—allowing for significant organic and inorganic growth. The divisions will be supported by global functions and centers of excellence for scale, synergies and excellence.
Within the filtration segment, Ahlstrom will continue to benefit from an ambitious investment strategy. Most recently, the company started production on additional capacity in both filtration and energy storage materials at its plant in Turin, Italy. By successfully expanding manufacturing facilities, Ahlstrom is making a strong commitment to customers in both the high performance filtration and energy storage markets.
The new machine at the Turin plant is a state-of-the-art line specifically designed to produce glass microfiber media. The line will serve applications where glass microfiber media is required, supporting growth initiatives in industrial filtration as well as in Absorbed Glass Matt (AGM), a key component in Lead Acid Batteries. In addition, the new line will also be able to deliver online saturated filter media, supporting the increasing global demand for filtration media.
“This investment supports our company’s strategic ambition to maintain a leading position in growth niches of the global filtration markets such as cleanrooms, HVAC and hydraulic applications,” says Giuseppe Costa, vice president, Filtration & Performance Solutions Asia and EMEA. “Additionally, the company is making a strong step into the energy storage market by bringing onstream a platform which will be fully qualified for the manufacture of AGM media.”
This investment follows the restart of one of the saturators in the Turin plant, enabling Ahlstrom to deliver additional capacity and effectively support customer demands for high-performance filtration media.
Other recent investments in the filtration business include a new saturator in Madisonville, KY, a machine rebuild in Binzhou, China, capacity expansions in Fabriano, Italy and Malmedy, Belgium and a new microglass line in Turin.
The investment supports Ahlstrom’s strategic ambition to maintain a leading position in selected niches of the global fiber-based solutions market that offer positive growth outlook and are supported by sustainable market drivers. The company has responded to growing customer demand by successively expanding its filtration manufacturing capabilities globally through several new and expansionary investments in the past few years.
Another area of interest for Ahlstrom is the electric vehicles market. In December, the company announced it would create products solely dedicated to filtration media solutions for electric vehicles. The new solutions are for filtration solutions for cabin air, transmission and cooling systems.
“I am very pleased to introduce our new filtration solution for fuel cell air intake,” says Cedric Vallet, head of Business Development, Industrial Filtration & New Vehicles. “By protecting fuel cells from harmful gases and particulates, we ensure the effective operation of the fuel cell over the entire service lifetime of the vehicle.”
“Through increasing fuel cell lifetime and minimizing the use of catalysts, we are offering new filtration solutions which optimize cost/benefit for our customers,” he adds.
Within its wallcovering business, Ahlstrom remains on track in expanding production capacity at its Malmedy plant in Belgium, specialized in the production of nonwovens for wallcovering. The €10 million investment, announced in January 2020, will double the capacity of the plant and diversify the production to also cover filtration materials. The investment will create some 40 new jobs locally.
In other investment news, Ahlstrom is investing €15 million for new technology and converting its existing boilers at its Mosinee and Rhinelander plants in Wisconsin to reduce its carbon emissions and landfill waste.
These investments at the Mosinee production plant will enable a reduction in its carbon footprint by an estimated 20% and a reduction of landfill waste by more than 10%. The project is estimated to be completed at the end of the second quarter in 2023.
In addition, the Rhinelander production plant is expected to reduce CO2 emissions by an estimated 14% and landfill waste by more than 50%.
In 2022, Ahlstrom updated its sustainability targets and committed to The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), which is a global body enabling businesses to set emissions reduction targets to be in line with new climate science.
For Ahlstrom's 2020 top company profile, click here.