Formia wins a 5 million euro order for an insulation panel line for Ruukki’s new plant in Romania

At the end of March, Formia Technology Group Oy and Ruukki Romania S.R.L. signed a delivery contract worth approximately 5 million euros for a sandwich panel line, to be delivered to Ruukki’s factory in Giurgiu. This order includes the entire delivery of the line, which makes sandwich panels using polyurethane and mineral wool as insulation materials. It is intended that the line will be operational in Romania by the beginning of March 2008.

Ruukki is building a new factory producing components and systems for the steel construction industry in Romania. The first part of the factory will begin operating in September 2007, while the sandwich panel line is intended to start during the first quarter of 2008.

Formia has cooperated with Ruukki since 2002 and the latest projects implemented concerned deliveries of high trapezoidal profile manufacturing lines. They have strong confidence in Formia’s competencies in roll-forming and the company’s international operating concept.

Formia was included from the beginning in Ruukki’s discussions on the purchase of the new sandwich panel line. Ruukki was looking for a reliable and powerful continuous combination line for polyurethane and mineral wool insulations producing high-quality sandwich elements for the Romanian and Bulgarian markets, which are growing rapidly. All major suppliers were invited to the bidding contest, but the functionality and total competitiveness of Formia’s concept turned out to be superior.
Formia was able to provide Ruukki with a reliable and flexible overall solution combining European design competencies with competitive international manufacturing know-how.

The insulation panel line has been designed to be extremely flexible and will be tuned to produce maximum output within the limits of the chemical processes involved. Its maximum capacity is 1,500,000 square meters of insulation panel a year. Based on our roll-forming expertise, we will introduce new front-end solutions ensuring e.g. rapid change-over times and, through our partnership with Cannon, apply its reliable competencies in polyurethane and press technology. The design and implementation will pay special attention to environmental and safety issues, which are important to both parties.

This delivery contract is the largest single order in the history of Formia. Winning the order bears testimony to Formia’s rapidly consolidating position as a technology supplier of factory-wide complete units for steel construction machines and equipment. This order has significantly lengthened Formia’s order book for 2007, verifying the company’s bright prospects for 2007 and 2008.

FORMIA IN BRIEF:
Formia is an internationally operating comprehensive supplier of machines used by the construction industry (roofs, walls, frames and sandwich panels) as well as sheet metal and machine shop solutions utilized in metal industry (component, module and system deliveries). Formia’s proforma turnover was 12.5 MEUR in 2006, and there are 100 sheet metal specialists in the company’s employ. Formia’s product manufacturing facilities are located in Jyväskylä and Seinäjoki (Finland). Formia also has manufacturing operations in Shaoxing China and a maintenance unit in Moscow.

RUUKKI IN BRIEF:
Ruukki supplies metal-based components, systems and comprehensive deliveries for construction and engineering. In terms of metal products, the company has a broad product and service selection. The company operates in 23 countries and has 13,000 employees. Its net sales in 2006 totaled 3.7 billion euros. The company’s shares are quoted on the Helsinki Stock Exchange (Rautaruukki PLC: RTRKS). Since 2004, the company has been using the marketing name Ruukki. www.ruukki.com