Ethanol - booming business for the Alfa Laval Group

Alfa Laval – a world leader in heat transfer, centrifugal separation and fluid handling – has received an order for equipment to two new, major ethanol plants in the US. The order value is about SEK 140 million. Deliveries will take place during 2007.

“The new project is Alfa Laval’s largest ethanol order up to now,” says Lars Renström, CEO of the Alfa Laval Group. “We are very proud to take part in this very large project that will satisfy a significant part of the US ethanol needs in the future. We see the order as another proof of our strong position in the fuel ethanol industry.”

The United States is currently the world’s largest producer of fuel ethanol with currently 19 billion litres per year. According to US legislation the amount of ethanol that must be blended into the gasoline is to be almost doubled from 2006 to 2012.

The Alfa Laval Group’s order intake related to fuel ethanol has been tripled during 2006 and the US represents a huge part of this increase. Alfa Laval has received a large number of substantial orders to the US ethanol industry during the last couple of years. The US sales comprises mainly of decanters and heat exchangers but also high speed separators for a completely new application in the corn-based ethanol process with an interesting potential in the US.

The new order contains decanter centrifuges, condensers and other heat exchangers for the two plants.

Editor’s notes:
Alfa Laval is a leading global provider of specialized products and engineering solutions based on its key technologies of heat transfer, separation and fluid handling.
The company’s equipment, systems and services are dedicated to assisting customers in optimizing the performance of their processes. The solutions help them to heat, cool, separate and transport products in industries that produce food and beverages, chemicals and petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, starch, sugar and ethanol. Alfa Laval’s products are also used in power plants, aboard ships, in the mechanical engineering industry, in the mining industry and for wastewater treatment, as well as for comfort climate and refrigeration applications.
Alfa Laval’s worldwide organization works closely with customers in nearly 100 countries to help them stay ahead in the global arena.
Alfa Laval is listed on the Nordic Exchange, Nordic Large Cap, and, in 2005, posted annual sales of about SEK 16.5 billion (approx. 1.8 billion euros). The company has some 10,000 employees.

For further information, please visit the Alfa Laval website at www.alfalaval.com.

For more information please contact:
Peter Torstensson
Vice President, Communications
Alfa Laval
Tel: + 46 46 36 72 31
Mobile: +46 709 33 72 31