Our vision
Industrial routes and competitiveness
Vallourec’s industrial footprint is divided into three strategic premium production hubs, and thus reflects the geographic balance of our markets. While further protecting us from currency fluctuations. These new production routes allow us to reconnect with competitiveness.
Differentiation through innovation
The second pillar of our transformation is differentiation. Because it is only by differentiating ourselves that we'll be able to resist new competitors and counter the trend towards trivialisation, which is affecting our industry like most others. By differentiating ourselves, we'll be able to consolidate our growth in the medium term.
And differentiation is above all about innovation. We already have good provisions for this, as innovation is part of Vallourec's DNA. What has changed is that our customers are now asking more than perfect tubes and connections. They're now asking for more integrated solutions to help them lower their operating costs.
This represents a broadening of the field of innovation for Vallourec. But we're taking up this challenge.
Two key challenges for Vallourec
1/ Moving from product innovation to solutions innovation
Today, customer innovation is also about finding new solutions, combining value-adding products and services to optimize and safeguard their facilities, simplifying flows and supply chains at the same time.
2/ Collaboration
Innovating alongside our customers, helping our employees’ innovative ideas come to fruition and opening up to the outside, startups, laboratories and other companies… to be truly effective, we need to go faster and be “agile”. And we know we’ll only do better if we change how we work and develop our ideas.
Digital technology at the heart of Vallourec's transformation
We’re currently at a pivotal moment for the digital future of Vallourec. Indeed, we’ve triggered the changes that should help us take advantage of all the potential digital technology offers.
What kind of potential? We’ve identified 3 avenues on which Vallourec is in motion:
- Improving our industrial performance through more systematic use of production data
- Defining a set of new services for our customers
- For Vallourec, digital technology is a veritable cultural revolution for which we’re preparing all our employees.
The service offering for our customers: Vallourec® Services
As a leading manufacturer of tubes for the energy and industrial markets, Vallourec is best placed to provide its customers with the essential support associated with its products, and has always considered services as an integral part of its offers.
The complete Vallourec® Services portfolio has been designed to meet an important market need, which is to ensure the best performance of our tubes from supply to final implementation, including tube recovery solutions. not used. In this way, we can guarantee our customers peace of mind and complete support throughout their value chain.
The challenge of the energy transition
After the digital transformation, our next great challenge will be the energy transition. Without doubt, the need to renew resources and support growing energy demands will guarantee strong activity within our industries for many years to come. But we need to be prepared.
We've chosen to do so by supporting our oil and gas customers, who are showing a clear desire to develop their portfolios and become energy suppliers more generally.
For us, this is a way for us to extend our approach to innovation and differentiation, this time in a medium-term perspective. Vallourec leverages its expertise in materials and connections for the oil and gas industry to test and qualify its products for new applications, including geothermal, hydrogen, capture, use and carbon storage (CCUS), as well as solar. To be better positioned in these markets, Vallourec has organized its portfolio of solutions for the energy transition into a complete offer called Vallourec® New Energies.
To meet the growing needs for hydrogen storage and support the development of green hydrogen, Vallourec has developed a unique hydrogen storage solution, called Delphy. Delphy enables large-scale storage of compressed hydrogen gas on an unprecedented scale, between 1 and 100 tonnes, with a focus on safety. Delphy stores compressed hydrogen in underground tube columns, with a minimal surface footprint and a modular design adaptable to storage needs.
Cultural change and skills support
The main stakeholders in our transformation are our employees. We ask a lot of them and their commitment is strong despite the difficult times we’ve experienced, which is indicated in the surveys we regularly carry out – and this is a great source of satisfaction for the Group’s management team
In return, we owe them our strong support in enabling them to meet the challenges facing our company and contribute to Vallourec’s lasting success. In this respect, our approach in terms of Human Resources is based around three objectives:
- Maintaining a high level of commitment,
- Guaranteeing the necessary managerial and technical skills through training and making the most effective tools available,
- Allowing all our employees to reconcile their professional and personal lives in the best possible way
For our transformation to be a success, to really take root and make everyone in the entire company feel – and indeed become – stakeholders, a certain number of initiatives have been developed.
