Maire, sustainability at the heart of the new strategic framework

The latest step was taken a few days ago with the entry of the Emirati Yousef Al Nowais, number one of Arab Development Company, into the capital of NextChem, Maire's subsidiary at the head of the Sustainable Technology Solutions business unit. A move, that put in place by Al Nowais, already an industrial partner and shareholder of Maire since 2013, which will serve to give further impetus to NextChem in a strategic area such as the Middle East, as explained to Il Sole 24 Ore by Maire's president, Fabrizio Di Amato. "This is a further junction in NextChem's valorisation path, which is at the heart of the reorganisation announced at the end of October and which was preceded by the new strategic structure launched last year and reconfirmed in the 10-year plan presented to the market last March".

With its new strategy to 2033, the group wanted to strengthen its position within an energy scenario characterised by heavy investment and the search for solutions aimed at decarbonising existing and new energy plants, with respect to which Maire is able to deploy extremely flexible responses. "In order to anticipate the epochal changes affecting the energy transition," Di Amato points out, "it was necessary to prepare a ten-year plan that envisages revenues of more than 10 billion to 2033, an ebitda of one billion, against more than one billion in investments to be made over the plan period, and net cash of 1.6 billion. The operation of the plan will rest on the two 'legs' of the new organisational model desired by Maire: on the one hand, the (Tecnimont) Integrated E& Solutions business unit, which will be called upon to cope with the growth in the quantity and size of energy projects thanks to its execution capabilities; on the other, the Technology Solutions business unit, reporting to NextChem, which will have to leverage its expertise in process engineering to integrate its proprietary technologies, supporting customers with end-to-end solutions in the fertilisers, hydrogen, chemicals, circular fuels and polymers sectors, all of which are crucial to the decarbonisation of industry.

"We have focused on a divisional model," Di Amato clarifies, "with two distinct brands (Tecnimont and NextChem) to differentiate two worlds that are different in terms of processes and skills, but which then work side by side in the execution of projects because the technology business unit is complementary to the other. In addition, the reorganisation has allowed us to have a greater focus on projects and to implement many of the things we do, while also managing to attract many more young people who,' continues Maire's chairman, 'have a very high sensitivity to the energy transition, as demonstrated by the more than 2,000 interviews we are conducting in schools with our Foundation.

In short, a reorganisation that has given new impetus to the group, and which was recently followed by the further reorganisation of the subsidiary NextChem, now divided into three business lines: sustainable fertilisers, low carbon energy vectors and circular solutions, under the leadership of the new CEO Fabio Fritelli. A new structure that will have to ensure, Di Amato points out, 'the increase of operational efficiency, the expansion of reference markets and the acceleration of the development of sustainable and scalable technologies'. Always keeping as the only steady course, continues Maire's chairman, "the need to pursue all technological solutions in order to guarantee the economic sustainability of projects and ensure important spin-offs in terms of employment".

For Di Amato, no option should be neglected in the development of new solutions, starting with hydrogen. Where - see also another article on the page - Maire's choice is to work on several tracks, i.e. not only on the road that leads to hydrogen production from renewables, but also on the one that leads to circular hydrogen, valorising, among other things, municipal and special waste that would otherwise be disposed of in landfills. "In Italy," the manager explains, "there are 16 million tonnes of waste that are not valorised because they end up in landfills, plus about 5 million tonnes that we now export abroad, with considerable costs for public administrations and citizens. Well, we could go and intercept those 21 million tonnes of total waste to produce 2.1 million tonnes of circular hydrogen. And, if we consider that Europe currently consumes over 8 million tonnes of hydrogen per year, this would allow us to increase our national production by becoming one of the leading producers in the Old Continent, at a significantly lower cost. This circular hydrogen would be complementary to renewable hydrogen, which would be dedicated to higher value-added products, and could meet the growing demand for sustainable chemicals and fuels such as methanol and ammonia'.