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Part 1 - General presentation of the Group
11
How is Hamon withstanding Asian competition?
Is the pressure on margins not becoming ever stronger?
We are resisting simply by becoming Asiatic. That is
to say, we are integrating in a progressive manner the
components which are found in Hamon products into
the production chain in Asia. In this context, we have
developed centers of manufacture in India, China and
Korea, to thus be able to play in the same league as
our competitors. We have become Chinese in China;
South Korean in South Korea… We have access to
the same price range, while in addition having this
quality label, major American references and this
European image that remains excellent… With all these
advantages, we can be attractive to customers in this
part of the world.
Were investments in R & D at the heart of your priorities
this year to enable you to propose new solutions and more
innovative products to your customers?
R & D has always been at the heart of our priorities,
even in times of crisis. We strive to always be at the
state of the art in our niche markets. Each year, we
develop our sense of innovation, whether in new
exchange surfaces for wet refrigerants, new tubing for
dry cooling or fine tuned flow modeling to improve the
performance of our flue gas treatment systems…
In the United States, for example, in collaboration with
Japan Power we have fine tuned a particularly innovative
ReACT TM process to desulfurize and treat dust with
a high yield and without water consumption. We invest
enormous amounts of time to develop innovative
solutions and thus take the lead on our competitors
in Asian countries, the NAFTA region and Europe.
In this current climate of a crisis in employment, will
Hamon continue to recruit?
Yes, every year, the volume of the Hamon Group’s
activities is on the rise, so it is normal that the number
employed throughout the world increases equally.
We are increasingly embedded in the manufacturing
process in Asia. Globally we recruit principally in
regions where we recently have been present.
Last year you evoked a vision for the future tinted with
realistic optimism for the Group, how would you describe
the horizon for 2013?
2013 will certainly be another challenging year for
Hamon and it would be unrealistic to say that all
will be easy. But I am more optimistic in February 2013
than a year before. America has begun to show signs
of growth… there are winds of change following the
U.S. elections, China has again begun to invest and the
Middle East will also continue.
There are enormous needs in all the countries of Asia
Pacific. In 2013 we will reap the fruit of our expansion
and our investments in terms of new products and
geographic regions. In principle, compared to 2012,
2013 can only be better.
What are the main challenges to rise to?
We have taken a strategic shift in respect to the BU
Air Pollution Control EMEA / Brazil by reducing its
fixed costs in Europe and by developing in Asia,
where demand is very strong. We have established
an engineering office with lower operating costs in
Chennai (India) with a team which will take the relay
for Asia and be working as a back-office for Europe.
The General Management of the BU Air Pollution
Control EMEA / Brazil has been transferred to Asia.
We thus move closer to the decision-making centers,
resources and the major global players in general
engineering which are often Korean or Chinese.
This decision permits the Group to strengthen its
competitiveness in these highly strategic markets.
In conclusion, the challenges for Hamon in 2013 will be
to have a satisfactory backlog for the BU Air Pollution
Control EMEA / Brazil and to ensure their proper
implementation. Following this, to improve the profitability
of the Dry Cooling division as the volume is now there.