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Part 2 - Overview by Business Unit
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target markets; energy, glassmaking, cement, wasteto-energy
facilities, steel and the petrochemical industry.
Hamon is one of the leaders in Western Europe in
upgrading waste incinerators to comply with air quality
regulations.
Contribution to our society
The contribution to society of these Air Pollution
Control systems is particularly real for the inhabitants
of neighboring regions. They dramatically reduce the
quantity of dust, acid gases and other pollutants
released into the atmosphere by heavy industries.
Organization
Following important recent developments and the
move of its center of gravity to Asia these last few
years, the business unit launched a reorganization plan
end of 2011:
■ Growing presence in Asia. This allows us to actively
follow up various projects carried on by Korean
engineering firms (EPC).
■ The Belgian and German subsidiaries host centers
of excellence for the BU in the field of electrostatic
precipitators and deSOx (with a specialization
depending on the type of client: power plants and
other industries).
■ The Chinese subsidiary hosts the center of
excellence for fabric filters.
■ Since the hiring of an important technical team in
September 2012, the Indian subsidiary Hamon
Research-Cottrell India moved its head offices from
Kolkata to Chennai. This subsidiary is taking care
(among others) of detail engineering for various
subsidiaries of this BU and support services to
other BUs.
■ Other branches and subsidiaries are more focused on
sales activities and the delivery of the projects (Brazil,
France, Italy, South Africa).
The BU also benefits from Hamon & Cie representative
offices, like the one opened in Vietnam early 2012, or
its subsidiary opened in Turkey in 2011.
This new organization allows the BU to better focus on
the niches it targets more specifically.
Research and Development
The main R&D programs in the business unit focused
on the following topics in 2012:
■ The influence of chlorides and alkalis on the efficiency
of the main electrostatic precipitators in the iron ore
agglomeration process.
■ Reduction in compressed air consumption by
low-pressure fabric filters.
■ New design conception of the multi-cyclones inlet
valves.
■ Development of a new design for lime water
absorption columns.
Key figures
In EUR million 2012 2011
New order bookings 61,0 66,8
Revenue 78,7 69,5
Backlog on 31/12 63,2 82,0
EBITDA -8,0 -7,9
EBITDA / revenue -10,1 % -11,4 %
Average headcount 312 268
2012 Results
The main objective of the second half of 2012 was to
conclude some difficult projects (in particular, a lossmaking
project in Belgium). Provisional acceptance
was obtained in December 2012 making it possible to
stabilize the result and to conclude this painful chapter.
The second objective was the redeployment of our
commercial activities in Asia and in Central and Eastern
Europe. These efforts are beginning to bear fruit with
a first order in Vietnam demonstrating the relevance of
a global approach to these markets and the importance
for Hamon of strengthening its Asian platform.
Changes in the workforce are due to a decrease in
Belgium / France (-15) and an increase in Asia and
Africa, where the growth of activities requires a strong
local presence.
2013 Prospects
Prospects for 2013 are encouraging and confirmed by
the good new order bookings of the first two months of
the year, amounting to EUR 55 million.
The current backlog allows us to consequently envisage
an increase in activities in Asia through:
■ The Korean, Japanese and Chinese EPCs for the
power plant and oil & gas markets.
■ From our office in Chennai for the power generation
and metals markets in India.