FINLAND: Heat transfer equipment manufacturer Luvata has announced plans to build a new greenfield facility in Serbia to manufacture its smaller, higher-volume heat exchangers, and plans to establish its first European coil-coatings plant in Italy.
The Euro5m investment will support Luvata's position as the world's biggest producer of coils and coolers for applications including commercial, industrial and mobile cooling and refrigeration.

The new plant in Serbia is expected to open at the end of this year and will enable Luvata to be more competitive in Turkey and Eastern Europe on smaller, high-volume items. This will also enable its Italian plants to focus their expertise on their traditional strengths in larger, more complicated, low-volume projects.

The new Electrofin facility in San Vito, Italy, will build on Luvata's successful coil-coatings business in the Americas. Scheduled to open in January, it will offer Luvata's ElectroFin E-coat and Luvata Insitu.

'Although our Heat Transfer Solutions division is performing well in the Americas and Asia, some of our European markets remain challenging,' commented Luvata CEO John Peter Leesi. 'In response, we are bringing our successful coil-coatings business closer to our European customers and redeploying our manufacturing expertise to better manage these challenges.'