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diameter of 118 millimeters. The comparison<br />
with other sites doesn’t work of course<br />
because if you remember that the Grimming<br />
Therme thermal spa in Bad Mittern-<br />
dorf needed piles for 40,000 square metres<br />
of land, that is not something that can be<br />
compared with our ‘tiny’ site. At Bad Mitterndorf,<br />
if all the piles delivered to the site<br />
had been laid end to end they would have<br />
covered a distance of 0 kilometers.<br />
How large is the building and how will<br />
it be equipped when the building work<br />
is completed?<br />
Our new building has an area at ground<br />
level of about 900 square metres and, if all<br />
the stories are included, a total floor area<br />
of ,000 square metres. The total volume<br />
of the new building is 7, 40 cubic metres. It<br />
looks as though we shall be completing the<br />
building work in March. After that, all the<br />
new production equipment, the technical<br />
services such as the cooling and hydraulic<br />
systems, the electrical system, the air-conditioning<br />
and dust removal systems and,<br />
of course, the necessary office space and<br />
amenity rooms for the employees in this<br />
department will be accommodated in the<br />
building. My colleague Max Kloger will have<br />
The new building for the foundry<br />
for centrifugal pipe casting stands on piles<br />
something to say about the details of the<br />
equipment and its significance for our future<br />
success in a future issue of inFORM.<br />
What about success? Let’s stick to the<br />
piles for the moment. Are driven piles<br />
already a success story in your opinion?<br />
Yes, in fact our cast pile has already had<br />
what would generally be seen as a ‘success<br />
story‘, but this story is very far from<br />
being over. On the contrary – there is a<br />
steady growth in the demand for secure<br />
foundations. The sales figures for piles have<br />
quadrupled in the past few years and we<br />
have not neglected to give some thought to<br />
possible new uses. With their use as what<br />
are called energy piles for extracting geothermal<br />
energy we can see the beginnings<br />
of a very interesting and forward-looking<br />
technology. At this very moment we are<br />
checking to see how we can make a further<br />
increase in our production capacity by collaboration<br />
between the Hall and Wetzlar<br />
sites.<br />
Finally, we would like to ask you where<br />
you think the next success stories are<br />
going to be?<br />
It is clear that the main area where the<br />
future success stories are going to take<br />
place is that of application solutions for<br />
our customers. To an increasing degree,<br />
customers do not just see us as suppliers<br />
of pipes but also expect professional solutions.<br />
We of course are catering for this<br />
desire by greatly expanding our engineering<br />
services in this area. “Trenchless” will<br />
be one of the magic words of the future in<br />
this case. You can already see this simply<br />
from the fact that on the site day at this<br />
year’s “Wasser Berlin” we shall be showing<br />
ten trenchless laying operations using<br />
different methods of laying. In Austria too<br />
people are realising the advantages of this<br />
method of installation.<br />
In central Europe, energy policy and environmental<br />
considerations are making hydroelectric<br />
power increasingly important<br />
as an alternative, ‘home-grown’ source of<br />
energy. It is not just since the latest crises<br />
of supply that we have seen a massive potential<br />
for growth in the sales of our turbine<br />
pipes. Regions where there are sufficiently<br />
large differences in altitude will be systematically<br />
exploiting the opportunities offered<br />
by hydroelectric power. As well as the<br />
Alpine region this also includes countries<br />
such as Spain and Norway.<br />
In the snowmaking field we shall be making<br />
further advances internationally, because<br />
at all the world’s skiing resorts the<br />
certainty of snow is now the success factor.<br />
Completely new skiing resorts are being<br />
built at the moment, particularly in Eastern<br />
Europe, and these are all putting their<br />
money on the advantages of making extra<br />
artificial snow. This is another development<br />
in which we want to play a major<br />
role. Trenchless laying, snowmaking, turbines<br />
or energy piles are all good example<br />
to show that we are continuing to move<br />
in the direction of application solutions for<br />
very demanding customers. This is a path<br />
we shall resolutely be continuing to follow<br />
in other fields too.<br />
Mr Fuhry, thank you for talking to us.<br />
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