What Finland's Valmet expects for South America mining in 2022

Finnish group Valmet, developer of automation, water and energy efficiency solutions for the paper, energy and mining industries, among others, expects to expand sales to miners in Chile, Peru and Bolivia in 2022 as companies boost efficiency, sustainability, and productivity.

Among favorable macro factors are the prices of the main minerals and the performance of the industry in addition to sector demands for sustainability and more efficiency, according to Carl Mikael Stal, technical and operations manager of Valmet for the Andes region.

Among the headwinds, though, are a possible cooling of Chinese demand and regulatory and macroeconomic issues in the region influencing sector investments.

“The price of copper, above all, is very important for [Chile] and for the mining sector, impacting customers and clients. And so far I'd say we’ve had a very good copper price level. The great uncertainty is what will happen in the short term,” Stal (pictured) told BNamericas.

Founded 200 years ago, Valmet launched direct operations targeting the mining industry in 2020, betting mostly on water management solutions, with Chile being the hub and main focus in the Andean region. 

Its filter fabric solutions are the same core technology already applied to other industrial activities that use lots of water.

Other products in Valmet’s mining portfolio include distributed control systems (DCS), which automate process controls, machines, vibrations, images and monitoring in general, as well as a gas emission control system, also applied to other industries.

Without disclosing names, Stal claimed Valmet has now 25 regular mining customers in the region. 

“We expect to continue growing in the delivery of water resources solutions within other relevant players in the mining industry in Chile, Peru and Bolivia, and continue adding alliances and agreements with the main mining operators in the region,” he said.

NEW LABORATORY

Among the new investments planned, the company is developing a laboratory for its filtration solutions next to its service center in Concepción, Chile. The laboratory is planned to open this year, according to Stal.

It will be focused on tests and proofs of concept, together with customers, for the water and materials separation solution, and add to a similar laboratory the company maintains in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

Stal sees new opportunities in the use of filtration in tailings dam operations, a topic that has become critical following disasters involving Vale’s tailings dams in Brazil. According to Stal, conversations are ongoing with companies in the region regarding this type of application.

The Finnish group is also betting this year on solutions to support the decarbonization of thermoelectric plants and other applications in the steel, petrochemical and shipping sectors in South America.

Valmet also intends to enhance the use of data analysis at its own plants and in the solutions sold to customers, for example to assist in predictive maintenance.

Stal did not reveal regional investments planned for 2022, but said they will be in line with the capex level of recent years.

Year-to-September 2021, the Valmet group reported 1.17bn euros (US$1.31bn) in orders received, 12% (437mn euros) of which coming from South America. That compares to 2.71bn euros in the year-before period, with South America accounting for 13% (352mn euros.)

Valmet’s net sales in 2020 were about 3.7bn euros and 542mn euros in South America. Full 2021 results have not yet been closed.