inform 11.2011 e (pdf file 2 MB) - Duktus

Editorial
Dear readers and friends of Duktus,
Welcome to our Christmas issue of inform for 2011. The Duktus angel on
the title page formed, quite by chance, from molten iron during a casting
operation at our works in Wetzlar, may it bring you rest, relaxation and a little
bit of peace over the forthcoming holidays.
Our economic environment however has been anything but peaceful over
the past few months. The debt crisis affecting a number of national economies,
the bank crisis which has become apparent as a result of this and
the crisis faced by the Euro have had their effects on the “real economy” of
Duktus. Problems with financing in many countries and market conditions
which have become less certain, in the Arab world for example, have made
themselves felt in our industry. In this way, a series of water management
projects have been postponed or deferred to a later date because of how
unclear general conditions are. Some of our competitors have been hit
very hard by declines in the market. The prices of raw materials have been
at record levels for months. None of this has made life any easier for Duktus.
On the contrary, when we finalise the figures for 2011 they will probably
only be at the same level as last year. We had made up our minds to
do much better.
It is thanks to the dedication and flexibility of our employees and their representatives
that we have been able to face these challenges. Variably organised
shifts in our factories, tireless efforts put into projects on the markets
and our employees all pulling together when some extra help was
needed have enabled us to adapt quickly and effectively to these changing
conditions.
At the same time, there were many successes and improvements that we
were able to achieve in this difficult environment. There were some successful
and sometimes spectacular operations that we were able to carry out in
conjunction with our customers.
The snow pipe systems sector of our market for example has developed
well. On page 6 and 7 you can read our reports on projects in Poland, Austria
and Switzerland and in the Russian ski resort of Rosa Khutor, where the
Winter Olympics are going to be held in 2014. We have also been able to
chalk up some successes in the field of turbine pipelines. We are happy to
say that ductile iron pipes have repeatedly come out on top in competition
with other materials (page 8).
The unmistakeable advantages of the restrained BLS®/VRS®-T joint regularly
allow us to be first past the post on trenchless projects. On pages 10 and
11 you can read about the use of Duktus pipes for the debut of trenchless
laying in Hungary and about satisfied customers in Tampere in Finland.
The laying of a culvert pipeline and a number of pipelines crossing waterways
in Linz (page 5) and a bridge pipeline of WKG pipes near Potsdam
(page 4) have allowed us to give you a general picture of how well we
perform.
Trenchless laying by the relining technique has been carried out for the first time in Hungary’s capital
Budapest using Duktus pipes
INFORM NO. 3 / 2011 | PAGE 3
Behind all these successful projects are our employees who, in good times
and in bad, by their willingness to play a powerful part in advancing our
business, have managed to get many things moving. There has been for
example the project team at Hall who, on Gusskomponenten GmbH closing
down, rolled up their sleeves and under difficult constraints got the
machining of fittings started under our own control to enable us to ensure
that we would be able to supply our customers (page 15). Another example
is the many colleagues who once again donated their leisure time to
the Day of Action at Wetzlar and the Ramma Damma day at Hall, in order
to get to work on many “sites” in the factories (page 17). We introduce you
to our new “Duktusers” on page 18 and to our teams of sporting enthusiasts
on page 19.
We hope you have an enjoyable read and wish you a pleasant holiday and
a happy New Year in 2012!
Yours very sincerely,
Ulrich Päßler Günter Fuhry Stefan Weber Max Kloger
Duktus pipes of wall-thickness class K 9 were the right choice for the turbine pipeline of the hydroelectric
power station at Albeins in South Tyrol