Wärtsilä Expands Into Biopower and Acquires an Established Company

Wärtsilä will expand its power plant range to include biomass fuelled plants. The company has signed an agreement to acquire Finnish company Sermet Oy, which specializes in small and medium-sized boiler plants running on biofuels, oil and gas.

Sermet's net sales in 2001 is expected to total approximately EUR 20 million and the result to be on a good level.

By acquiring Sermet, Wärtsilä strengthens its position as a supplier of decentralized power plant solutions. Demand for power plants running on fuels from renewable energy sources is growing strongly. The combined output of biomass fuelled power plants currently under construction in Europe totals approximately 1,000 MW. There is a large market potential in the developing countries. In the market sector there are several local equipment suppliers, but not yet companies that supply small power plants globally. In this field Sermet is the leading company supplying boilers for bio fuels in the Nordic countries and Finland is a front-line biomass combustion know-how base in the market.