podcast
“The Zero Hour”
“We feel the demand”: Voith builds the machines that the world now needs to become sustainable
Toralf Haag heads the globally active Heidenheim-based family company Voith
© Ute Grabowsky/ / Picture Alliance
Countries around the world are investing in climate protection – which not only costs money, but also means new business. The Heidenheim mechanical engineering company Voith wants to earn money from the hydropower boom. And the trend towards paper instead of plastic.
The mechanical engineering company Voith expects good business in many countries, especially in the USA and China, as a result of the global infrastructure packages and investments in climate protection. “We feel the demand in tenders, the award is now in 2022,” said Voith boss Toralf Haag in the podcast “Zero Hour”. “We hope that this will result in larger orders.” Haag expects a boom, especially in the hydropower business, which suffered after the outbreak of the pandemic and in which Voith has been active for decades.
“I see the greatest potential in the USA and China, the governments there have announced that they want to invest heavily in pumped storage power plants over the next few years. We want to play a role there,” said Haag. The Voith boss also sees “great potential in Africa and South America. We have a number of projects in Africa where we are building large hydroelectric power plants.”
Orders over five billion euros
The order books are well filled at the Heidenheim-based family company, with incoming orders recently increasing by almost a quarter to around five billion euros. Voith is thus an example of how the conversion of the economy to climate neutrality can not only involve high costs, but also new business for German companies.
Haag expects an upswing in Voith’s core markets because sustainable technologies are in high demand. In addition to hydropower, this is also wind power, which Voith has entered again. But the paper machines, for which the company from Heidenheim is known worldwide, are also benefiting from the fact that packaging is being switched from plastic to cardboard and paper and e-commerce is booming, for which more packages are needed. “The division that has the most revenue growth is the paper division,” said Haag.
Haag, who has been at the helm of Voith since 2018, sees the issue of energy storage as being neglected in the conversion to climate neutrality. “If we rely heavily on renewable energies, i.e. primarily on sun and wind, we have to fill gaps until these are sufficiently developed,” says the Voith CEO. “When the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing, we need more energy storage facilities.”
According to its own statements, Voith has been producing in a climate-neutral manner since the beginning of the year, thanks to a better electricity mix of renewables (from 44 to around 87 percent), its own solar and hydropower and compensation measures. In the last sustainability report, there were still 140,000 tons of CO2 equivalents in direct emissions within the company.
Listen in the new episode of “The Zero Hour“:
- Why for Toralf Haag hydrogen should be one of the core technologies in Germany
- How long the supply chains for machine builders will be disrupted or burdened
- How Voith forged the plan three years ago to become climate-neutral
All episodes can be found directly at AudioNow, Apple or Spotify or via Google.