Strategy and growth

Shift to growth

As an independent company, Sandvik Materials Technology will be able to further focus on growing the business and creating value for our shareholders, our customers and employees. One of our main potentials for growth lies in the industrial heating business and in leveraging on the global electrification trend within industries wishing to lower their CO₂ emissions.

The renewables segment is developing rapidly and we see potential to expand our tube business in several renewable technology fields, such as off-shore wind, solar power, geothermal power, carbon capture and hydrogen. Another interesting growth segment is the chemical and petrochemical industry with Asia driving investments particularly in gas infrastructure and the chemical industry. The medical segment is another clear growth segment, driven by demand for monitoring devices and smaller and thinner materials, such as our medical wires.

We expect to grow organically primarily in our defined growth segments and will add acquisitions onto that in areas where we see growth potential and strong earnings. We made two acquisitions in our defined growth areas: The Swiss-based company Accuratech Group, a niche medical wire forming and component manufacturer, and the German-based company Gerling GmbH (closed January 2022), a precision tube engineering company serving multiple industries, including the fast-developing hydrogen market.

Digital shift

We continued our strong focus on R&D and digital innovations. Data simulations help us make quality and energy-efficiency improvements and we have started using big data to fast track the grade development of alloys. We have also developed a digital solution using facial recognition technology that automatically detects internal surface defects through the patterns in tubes.

This year we accelerated our e-commerce efforts with E-Track, a digital platform that improves the customer experience by providing access to stock levels, order information, certificates and more. The new platform is the first of its kind among steel producers and offers customers an individually adapted interface to meet their demand for information from anywhere, at any time.

Our Sandvik Mobile Service Solutions container continues to gain traction among customers. It uses a digitally connected system to straighten and cut coiled tubing on site to match customer specifications. This significantly reduces waste compared with delivering a standard tube size, leading to substantial material, time and cost savings.