In the words of Nidec ASI CEO, Giovanni Barra, “2015 ended with a 100% growth in inbound orders in the last two years, a portfolio increase of 200%, and a tripling of EBIT since 2013. And today we are planning a 35 million euro investment in a new production site in the US.”

MILAN, June 7, 2016 – Thanks to a number of important contracts, Nidec ASI is growing and expanding its activities. Giovanni Barra, CEO of the multinational, points out that “our financial year runs from March to April of the following year, so we just ended 2015 with a 100% growth in inbound orders in the last two years, a portfolio increase of 200%, and a tripling of EBIT since 2013. In 2016 we expect to reach almost $400 million in sales, with an organic growth of 29% over the previous year.“.

Global competitiveness and a strong development plan are the key elements of the continuous growth strategy established by CEO Barra: “The size of our company, with 1,600 employees in 11 countries (Italy, France (Roche-La-Molière), Germany (Essen), the United States, Romania (Crevedia), Russia (Moscow), the United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi), China (Beijing), Japan (Tokyo) and South East Asia), allows us to compete efficiently and flexibly in terms of order management, commissioning and assistance, enabling us to compete technologically with much larger German and American multinationals and to offer a very high-quality service. We are now rapidly completing a series of investments of approximately 35 million euros, a challenging development program for new power electronics products, some of which are designed for the production, storage and stabilisation of energy produced from renewable sources. Finally, we are considering options for the construction of a new production site, also in the US, where we already have two sites,

Houston and Cleveland, employing 160 people, with teams specialising in motors and mega inverters for oil & gas, steel, manufacturing equipment for energy production, the automation and control of large cranes for ports, and transport of minerals for mines.”

Nidec ASI, which offers customised solutions for a wide range of industrial applications worldwide, has made three moves of global significance in recent months. In May, the company was selected by the Russian oil giant, Transneft, for an order worth 125 million euros, to supply 250 electric motors for the modernisation of the existing installations of the pumping system of one of the world’s longest pipelines (approximately 80,000 km). This project comes after another order in February 2015 for 70 mega motors and mega inverters for the 4,000-km ESPO pipeline (Eastern Siberia Pacific Ocean), connecting Russia to the Asian nations of China, Japan and South Korea. In addition, just before last Christmas, Nidec ASI won the contract for the supply of multiple systems of energy storage for the German utility company, STEAG. With a capacity of 90 MW, it is currently the largest energy storage system of its kind.

These three major projects have, in just a year, swept Nidec ASI into a leading position in the energy sector. Under the control of the Japanese company Nidec, listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the company operates with full strategic and operational autonomy, benefiting from the investment in growth made available by the Japanese group.

There is a focus on diversifying business lines: “We are a multinational company that designs and manufactures large electric motors, power electronics and industrial automation systems to order, with a strong focus on energy efficiency”, continues Barra. “The historic origins of the sector are characterised by the development of systems for the control and automation of production lines in steel manufacturing, which over the years has been extended to a variety of sectors, such as petrochemicals, which is today the sector with the highest percentage of turnover at 47%, followed by conventional and renewable energy at 33%, industrial automation (including cable transport) at 9% (the same as the steel industry), and finally, the naval sector at 2%“.

The CEO goes on to outline a number of areas for development lines and for further strengthening on an international level: “In 2016, we expect continued growth in markets outside Europe, with significant geographic expansion in such areas, with world markets outside Europe making up 69%, and Europe 31%”.Nidec ASI’s know-how is based on over 150 years of technological innovation, based on an engineered-to-order approach that enables it to satisfy the demands of customers in 86 countries worldwide, with very different technological specifications, from electronics able to endure both heat and dusty environments and temperatures down to – 60°C, which require special electronics and steel for motors. Close attention to the industrialisation of the product, modular components and efficiency in production ensures that the company is competitive even in such shrinking markets as petroleum and steel, and enables the continued development in the growing markets of energy storage and production from renewable sources.