Zenon reports that it completed a record-setting year in 2003 by nearly doubling its profits to US$ 12.5 million from US$6.4 million in 2002.
"Bookings for the year were a record-setting US$ 243 million, which resulted in the highest year-end backlog in the company's history of US$ 221 million, representing a 35% growth over 2002," according to Andrew Benedek, chairman and chief executive officer of Zenon, based in Oakville, Ontario, Canada. Zenon's presence in Europe, particularly Eastern Europe, is promising; however Benedek is focusing on increasing the company's market share in Europe this year. Inter-national markets other than Europe posted strong quarterly revenue gains from orders in Hungary, Asia and the Pacific Rim.
One factor contributing to this growth is the increasing number of larger orders awarded to Zenon. In 2003, Zenon's ZeeWeed® technology began to be installed in significantly larger water and wastewater treatment plants. ZeeWeed technology is being used in the world's largest ultrafiltation drinking water plant in Singapore, which started the commissioning process in late 2003. This plant treats 72 million gallons of water per day. Zenon also won a contract to supply its ZeeWeed® 1000 technology for an even larger drinking water plant to be built in Mississauga (Peel Region), Ontario, Canada. Upon completion in 2006, this plant will treat 80 mgd of drinking water. The expanded plant will incorporate ozone and biologically activated carbon (BAC) to pre-treat source water from Lake Ontario, prior to membrane filtration.
In addition, membrane plants using Zenon technology will also be constructed in two US locations — Thornton, Colorado, and Scottsdale, Arizona. The City of Thornton is expanding and upgrading its drinking water plant to service its community of more than 100,000 people. The new system will be completed in the spring of 2005, and will treat 189,000 m3/d.
The City of Scottsdale currently pays the City of Phoenix to treat a portion of its drinking water, sourced from the Salt River Project. This is challenging surface water because it contains levels of arsenic that can reach as high as 20 µg/l, double the recently revised regulatory limit of 10 µg/l. The new Chaparral water treatment plant will be built on a 10-acre site, will treat 114,000 m3/d, and will be completed by the spring of 2005.
