You’ve been at the helm of Alleima since 2017, but you’ve been with the company since the Sandvik days in the 90s. Looking back, what stands out as the biggest shift you’ve seen in your business and the industries you serve?
Having been here 35 years, I would say globalization is the biggest shift, and especially the strong technology development and growth in Asia. We’ve gone from being a more European-focused to a truly global company, with a footprint and sales around the world. If I look back at the last 10–15 years, there have been more “black swan” events than usual — the financial crisis, the oil price crisis 2015, the pandemic, and now recently trade wars. As a company, you have to be flexible and resilient to handle these events.
With what’s happening now with tariffs, what was good about globalization risks not be so good anymore. We see the uncertainty it creates — tariffs jumping from 25% to 50%, then paused, then resumed — and that’s difficult for customers. We compensate with price increases, which can slow consumption and delay investment decisions. Free competition improves efficiency — the best companies serve the customer. Tariffs have a role when there’s price dumping, overcapacity, unfair trade, or subsidies, but I’m not in favour of the current direction. There’s a risk that the best will not be the ones serving the customer. Our global footprint means we’re local in many places, including the US, where we finish a lot of products locally, so tariff impacts are smaller. We’re continuing to execute on our growth strategy, though uncertainty slows the market and risks inflation.
Alleima hosts a wide portfolio from seamless steel tubes to strip steel and wires. Which applications are making the biggest impact today?
We’re a niche, specialized company in several ways — high value add, advanced materials, and products engineered for specific customer applications. We serve industrial heating, chemical- and petrochemical, medical, transport, aerospace, nuclear, oil and gas.
In medical, we make products for sensing and stimulation, such as CGM, cochlear implants, and more. For energy, we make steam generator tubes for nuclear power, umbilical tubing to control offshore oil and gas wells. In oil and gas, we’re the market leader in certain areas. In nuclear, we have strong positions in steam generators and cladding tubes. We’re investing in R&D and business development for renewables and hydrogen applications.
Alleima has more than 50 years’ experience in the nuclear industry. When it comes to nuclear or renewables, how do you balance long-term opportunities with the current geopolitical and economic climate?
In nuclear, we’re one of only a handful of companies able to produce steam generator tubes, and we’re increasing capacity by 60%. This includes large water-cooled reactors and small modular reactors (SMRs), which are still water-cooled. We’ve already taken commercial SMR orders. We’re also investing in R&D for next-generation reactors, where there is a lot of development ongoing, — lead-cooled, sodium-cooled, helium-cooled — mainly tubular applications. In renewables, we’re prioritizing R&D and business development, but there are headwinds. Growth is slower than expected in hydrogen and renewables due to overcapacity in solar (mainly from China), slower technology ramp-up in areas like fuel cells, and shifting government priorities. — for example, Europe focusing more on defence and US policy is changing. Asia remains strong in renewables.
New technology ramp-up takes longer than planned, which affects financing as costs increase and returns are delayed. Some technologies are still subsidy-dependent, and with more pressing issues, subsidies can be reduced. That slows progress.
You’ve called Alleima’s materials “hidden heroes” that can enhance energy and CO₂ efficiency. Can you share examples where the right material choice has achieved that?
We’ve committed to cutting our own emissions by 50% by 2030 from a 2019 baseline, and we’re on track. But the largest impact is through our products.
In solar PV, our tubes handle high-temperature, corrosive processes for polysilicon production. In concentrated solar power, with molten salt as an energy carrier, the corrosive environment is challenging, which fits our portfolio. In carbon capture, our tubular systems transport CO₂ underground. In hydrogen, we produce pre-coated strip steel for fuel cells and electrolyzers.
For energy efficiency, our compressor valve steel for cooling compressors is 18% more efficient than standard — approximately 20% of all electricity is used for cooling – think of the potential reduction of energy use if all were using the most energy efficient solution - it could close many coal plants.
Steel production remains a major source of emissions. You use about 80% recycled material — how is that possible, and why don’t others do it?
We target more than 80% secondary raw material in our melt, and we’re there. Special grades make this challenging, but we’re achieving it. We’ve expanded buyback programs, purchasing customers’ production scrap and, increasingly, materials after decades in service. Customers benefit from better prices and transparency; we benefit from well-sorted, fit-for-purpose scrap.
The steel industry produces roughly 7% of total CO₂ emissions, mainly from blast furnaces, which we don’t, since we remelt scrap. The largest contribution to reducing CO2 emissions from the steel industry would be to move from blast furnace technology to DRI. We’re also working on solutions for DRI plants to heat gas electrically rather than with fossil fuels, in partnership with Danieli in Italy.
Despite economic turbulence, you’re still investing heavily. Which markets present the greatest opportunity for growth in the near future?
We’re expanding nuclear capacity and industrial electrical heating and are increasing capacity in Germany, Japan, Scotland, and the US, as well as in Asia — a new tube mill in China opens this year, and we did a similar one in India recently.
Our fastest-growing area is medical — sales have quadrupled in five years. We’ve grown from one site in Florida to multiple in the US and Europe, and our first in Asia opens in Malaysia this year. The growth is coming from both organic investments, as well as through acquisitions.
