“Hope for big orders”: Voith wants to “play a role” in climate neutrality

“Hope for big orders”
Voith wants to “play a role” in climate neutrality

Countries around the world are investing billions in climate protection. The economy senses big business. Voith also expects full order books. The traditional company from Baden-Württemberg has relied on hydropower for a long time. We also see ourselves at the forefront of the trend towards paper instead of plastic.

The mechanical engineering company Voith is hoping for good business around the world, especially in the USA and China, thanks to the infrastructure packages worth billions and investments in climate protection. “We feel the demand in tenders, the award is now in 2022,” says Voith boss Toralf Haag in the podcast “The hour zero. Haag expects a boom, especially in the hydropower business, which suffered after the outbreak of the pandemic and in which Voith has been active for decades.

Voith boss Toralf Haag

(Photo: picture alliance / photothek)

“I see the greatest potential in the USA and China, the governments there have announced that they want to invest heavily in pumped storage power plants over the next few years. We want to play a role there,” says Haag. The Voith boss also sees “great potential in Africa and South America. We have a number of projects in Africa where we are building large hydroelectric power plants.”

The order books of the family company from Heidenheim an der Brenz are well filled, with incoming orders recently increasing by almost a quarter to around five billion euros. Voith is an example of how the conversion of the economy to climate neutrality can not only involve high costs, but also new business for German companies.

Haag expects an upswing in Voith’s core markets, sustainable technologies are in high demand. In addition to hydropower, this also includes wind power, which Voith has re-entered. But the paper machines for which the company from Heidenheim is known around the world also benefit from this. Packaging is being switched from plastic to cardboard and paper worldwide, and e-commerce is booming, which also requires more packages. “The division that has the most sales growth is the paper division,” says Haag.

In the conversion to climate neutrality, Haag, who has been at the helm of the company since 2018, sees the topic of energy storage as being very neglected. “If we rely on renewable energies, i.e. above all on sun and wind, we have to fill gaps until they are sufficiently developed,” says the Voith CEO. “When the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing, we need more energy storage facilities.”

According to Voith, it has been producing in a climate-neutral manner since the beginning of the year – thanks to a better electricity mix of renewables (from 44 to around 87 percent) as well as its own solar and hydropower and compensation measures. In the last sustainability report, there were still 140,000 tons of CO2 equivalents in direct emissions within the company.

Listen in the new episode of “The Zero Hour

  • Why for Toralf Haag hydrogen should be one of the core technologies in Germany
  • How long the supply chains for machine builders will be disrupted or burdened
  • How Voith forged the plan three years ago to become climate-neutral

All episodes can be found directly at AudioNow, Apple or Spotify or via Google.

.
source site-32