White Plains, New York and Duesseldorf, Germany -- ITT Industries announced Jan. 26 that it has purchased 88.06 % of WEDECO AG Water Technology.
"ITT Industries is poised to assume a leading position in the water treatment business. Through its acquisition of WEDECO AG Water Technology of Düsseldorf, Germany, and Heng Tong Water Treatment Engineering Co. Ltd. of Shanghai, China, ITT Fluid Technologies' Sanitaire business unit has secured access to technology that is leading edge within the industry" says Tom Pokorsky, President ITT Industries, Sanitare.
ITT is a global market provider of pumping equipment, thus providing an essential technology for water treatment plants all over the world. The recent acquisitions will enable ITT Sanitaire steadily increasing number of customers to meet growing global demand for clean water and satisfy new regulations governing municipal and industrial water treatment through complete water treatment solutions including instrumentation, filtration, biological treatment, disinfection and oxidation.
This is a market which is set to grow continuously and rapidly over the next few decades as population growth, especially in areas of scarce natural water resources, exhausts existing fresh water reserves, thus making the need ever more pressing for waste water recycling.
WEDECO's know-how, in particular, promises to reduce the need for chlorine-based treatment of wastewater destined for recycling applications. WEDECO is one of the world's largest manufacturers of UV disinfection and ozone oxidation systems, which are viewed as increasingly attractive alternatives to chlorine treatment.
Anticipated EPA regulations in the US and ongoing compliance with existing rules in the EU are expected to be catalysts for growing use of UV technologies for disinfecting drinking water in these regions.
Where there is specific growth in the demand for a low-cost supply of water for industrial purposes such as power, pharmaceutical, chemical and manufacturing applications, ITT Sanitaire acquisition of Heng Tong Water Treatment Engineering Co. Ltd, a packager of reverse-osmosis (RO), membrane and other water treatment systems, also provides a substantial enhancement of ITT Sanitaire's technological footprint, especially in China, where a number of new government directives call for increasing urban water and wastewater treatment in the next few years.
"With the growing global demand for clean, usable water, and with tighter regulatory requirements governing water treatment in key markets, ITT Industries recognized early on that we wanted to increase our presence in the water treatment business worldwide," said Bob Ayers, president of ITT Industries Fluid Technology. "We purchased Sanitaire's biological treatment technology in 1999 to complement our Flygt pumps offering, and have continued to grow through additional adjacent treatment technologies since then. By acquiring the filtration components of PCI Membranes, Water Equipment Technologies, C'treat, Portacel, Royce Technologies and now Heng Tong, and adding finally the disinfection capability of WEDECO, our Sanitaire business has the right products in all regions of the world to enable municipal and industrial customers to improve the quality of treated water that can be used in irrigation, cooling and other processes."
About ITT Industries
ITT Industries, Inc. (www.itt.com) supplies advanced technology products and services in key markets including: electronic interconnects and switches; defense communication, opto-electronics, information technology and services; fluid and water management and other specialty products. Headquartered in White Plains, NY, the company generated $5.6 billion in 2003 sales.
