Oct-2022

Advancing industries through materials technology

At the end of August 2022, following shareholder approval of a proposal presented by the Sandvik AB board of directors, Sandvik Materials Technology officially separated from Sandvik AB.

Alleima

Article Summary

On 31 August 2022, Sandvik Materials Technology rebranded to Alleima and became listed on the Nasdaq Stockholm Exchange as a stand-alone company. For 160 years, Alleima has been moving materials forward, turning raw into precision, and advancing industries worldwide. The advanced stainless steels and special alloys of Alleima are world-leading. Fuelled by a desire to care, deliver, and evolve, Alleima provides leading materials solutions, advances customer operations, and enables new technologies.

Utilising its position as a technology leader, progressive customer partner, and sustainability driver, Alleima aims to become an even stronger and independent company within the materials industry, with a clear direction for the journey ahead.

Forged from the past, engineered for the future
The Alleima history dates back to 1862 when Sandvik was founded by Göran Fredrik Göransson. For 160 years, Alleima has been a global engineering and materials technology company synonymous with absolute industry premium, offering products and services that enhance customer productivity, profitability, and sustainability.

The new name of Alleima combines two core strengths of the business – alloys and materials – with alei, an old version of the word alloy, as the foundation.

Göran Björkman, President of Alleima, said: “In Alleima we have found a name that encapsulates the core of what we do and our uniqueness in a great way. It will enable us to position ourselves as the technology leader, progressive customer partner, and sustainability driver that we are.”

Same old – brand new
Although a new name and brand, Alleima will continue to be the same supplier, with the same values, way of working, expertise and the same high-quality stainless steel and alloys offering. All existing orders and contracts remain valid and confirmed delivery schedules will not be affected.

The company’s capabilities, global offering, and footprint continue to be the same. Control over the supply chain from research and development (R&D) to melt to the final product remains the priority of Alleima. Sandviken in Sweden is still the main industrial site, R&D location, and the company’s head office. Employees in its global locations continue to support customers across different time zones.

Advancing together
In India, one of the key growth areas is specialty chemicals, which make up a large share of the total chemicals and petrochemicals market of the country. In addition, the demand is estimated to have risen at a high pace during the last couple of years. This, added to the high corrosion challenges they place on manufacturing equipment, means there is a need for advanced materials to drive more efficient, profitable, and sustainable processes, products, and applications.

The Mehsana production facility in Gujarat, India, began life as an extrusion unit for tubes, pipes, and hollow bars.

In 2004, a cold pilgering line was added, and a limited number of grades were produced. Over the years, Alleima also extensively upgraded the finishing facilities for the production of heat exchanger tubing. More recently, in response to the elevated demand for special alloy tubes in India and the Asia Pacific, Alleima expanded its product portfolio to accommodate an enhanced cold pilgering process, pushing ahead with a much greater variety and quantity of tubes.

As a result, various processes for producing tube products, including hot extrusion and cold pilgering, also known as hot and cold extrusion, now occur on-site. Additionally, the Mehsana production also manufactures grades used in the specialty chemicals market, such as alloy 200, alloy 201, alloy 600, alloy 625, alloy 825, C 276, C 22, and many other special grades to meet corrosion resistance challenges.

These advanced alloys are demanded by customers who depend on reliability, particularly in oil and gas and chemical facilities where operating environments can be highly corrosive and production is integrated, meaning the performance of every component is critical.

These unique grade tubes are manufactured to stringent Alleima quality standards and offered highly competitive delivery options. For example, Alleima can deliver tubes from 12.7 mm to 50.88 mm from its Mehsana mill without limitations on quantity.

Beyond heat exchangers, the advanced corrosion-resistant tube, pipe, and hollows available from Alleima can propel process equipment across various industries, including petrochemical, oil and gas, chemical, and fertilizer.

In the oil and gas sector, Alleima has been a world-leading manufacturer of subsea umbilical tubing for over 25 years. It has supplied 122 million meters (400 million feet) of umbilical tubing with zero failures and 99% on-time delivery. That is enough tubing to circle the world three times! The Mehsana production unit has supplied mother hollows for half of this quantity since 2004.
Separately, with special alloys from the Sanicro family available from Mehsana, Alleima supplies customers across the region with tubes and piping to withstand the most corrosive environments.

The Alleima zero defects policy and full traceability from melt to final finished tube also give customers the confidence of complete control over their products, empowering them to install or modify the material with full knowledge of its history.

Everything is new, nothing has changed
Since 1862, Alleima has advanced industries and societies through our materials technology and never stopped innovating. A journey started as Sandvik Materials Technology but will continue as Alleima, with the company heritage and values as travel companions. The quality stainless steel and alloys remain the same.

This short article appeared in the 2022 Refining India Newspaper, which you can view HERE