Demand for Kohlswa Gjuteri’s specialized cast products is riding high, and the company, whose operations were disrupted when fire swept through its plant earlier this year, is planning to debottleneck production during the summer holidays.
The RAM-plate features among Kohlswa’s latest deliveries of mooring system to Ramnäs.
The fire, which took place in late January, caused extensive damage to the roof, the melting hall, and to the electric arc furnace that is at the heart of the Kohlswa’s manufacturing, according to CEO Håkan Thoreson. However, no one was injured in the blaze.
Two months of manufacturing were lost before repairs were completed and normal production resumed in early April. The company is working flat out to supply orders for its two areas of specialist products, stainless steel for the process industry and high-strength steel for the offshore market. During the summer holiday shutdown it plans to increase capacity in the molding shop, which has been a bottleneck. This will open the way to a 15-20% increase in throughput.
Kohlswa continues to regularly supply mooring products for APL via anchor chain manufacturer Ramnäs. In early June it was due to deliver orders via this supply chain to the Vincent and Maari FPSO projects in Australia and New Zealand respectively: 17 shackles and RAM-plates for the Vincent development and 18 shackles and RAM-plates for Maari.
Each shackle and each RAM-plate weigh about one ton. Kohlswa’s first delivery of RAM-plates, a design developed by Ramnäs to allow chain and wire to be connected without the need for a triplate, was to Statoil’s Volve project in the Norwegian sector last year.
Another regular customer is Moorlink, for which the company has seven orders with deliveries stretching ahead into early 2008. These mainly involve swivels for mooring floating installations. The product range includes marine equipment such as towpins, propeller blades and hubs.
“We specialize in the most complicated parts, for which you also have to follow many requirements and have all the approvals, as we have,” says Thoreson.
For more information contact Håkan Thoreson, Kohlswa Gjuteri. Tel +46 221 830 02, fax +46 221 830 19, [email protected], www.kohlswagjuteri.se
