Monday, 14 December 2009 11:21

PRESIDENT: Luis Ruiz Castillo
OPERATIONS:  manufacture and commercialisation of valves
ESTABLISHED: 2000  
EMPLOYEES: 60
REVENUE: estimated 2009 30 million €
www.ringospain.com

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Just right next to Zaragoza, Spain, in an industrial area called “Empresarium” lies the headquarters of Ringo Valvulas, one of the largest and most successful European valve designer and manufacturer. Devotion of its clients to the company’s products and services can only be compared to its staff’s devotion to quality and constant attention to details.  

The short history of a success

Ringo Valvulas started off in the year 2000, emerging from a company named Walthon Wall Pacific. Its management and some of its staff left the mother firm to start a new company while benefiting from over twenty years of their experience. At first, the company had only 8 employees on the payroll. Due to rapid growth of the company and major investments, this situation did not last for a very long period of time. Ringo Valvulas continued to acquire talents and by 2005 it had hired 45 professionals. Currently the firm has a staff of 60 people. The management puts every effort to ensure that their talented personnel has plenty of opportunities to develop. The company has implemented a personalized career plan supported by constant trainings on techniques, designs and norms which are provided by the best trainers and certificators available. This solution supports the growth of the company’s staff while maximizing its efficiency and maintaining the recycle of know-how.

The creation of a diversified offer

Ringo Valvulas offers a whole variety of valves, for different purposes. The main field are the ball valves, both floating and trunnion design, side entry or top entry. The usage of such valves differs. They are applied in oil and gas pipelines, both upstream and downstream, in chemical and petrochemical industry, but also in power plants. If needed, Ringo Valvulas can also provide some special design ball valves such as the counterweight valve used in hydroelectrical plants, three way or four way ball valves, or ball valves interchargeable in live – more economic than your average top entry ball valve. The firm also offers gate valves and pressure plug valves which can be adjusted to satisfy the customer needs. The globe valves variety also provides many different solutions such as several types of bonnets and a diversity of seats. Last but not least, Ringo Valvulas provides a selection of individual designs of check valves that match the service conditions of the order. All valves can be designed from a range of diverse, yet always top-notch material. The list includes carbon steels, alloy steels, high resistant steels, stainless steel, nickel alloys, duplex and superduplex. The firm’s technical department always chooses the best fitting material to match the customer requirement and service conditions. The designers and manufacturers in Zarazgoza always take special care of their customer’s needs and provide solutions to their valve problems, whatever may they be. What is also worth mentioning is the company’s struggle to take care of its clients even after the sale is done. It offers also a constant supply of spare parts as well as mobile help team that minimizes the time needed to solve any existing problem regarding supplied equipment on location.

Major markets

Ringo Valvulas is a national leader in valve supply for Spanish nuclear plants with more than 95 percent share of the market. One should not be fooled by these numbers, for still more than two thirds of its production goes abroad. Sweden, Switzerland, Mexico, Argentina, South Africa and China can be found among some of the most interesting markets. Furthermore, Middle East is a rapidly growing market for high performance valves which are used in gas and oil pipelines, as wall as for chemical and petrochemical purposes. The firm is present on five continents, the management admits however that their main concern are the domestic market, which still provides 30 percent of its profits, Middle and Far East and Europe. Such a big share in the domestic nuclear market results in the standardization of valves used in common processes. Ringo Valvulas and its clients have reached an agreement that brought a certain collaboration to life. A collaboration allowing the company to offer products in exceptionally short supply periods with full technical support.

Certificates and recognitions

Quality has always been a key factor for the company’s staff. Its products are always fabricated with extra care and in accordance to all quality standards available. Ringo Valvulas is proud of every single valve that leaves the factory in Zaragoza with its label on it, because the firm knows that it’s been manufactured in accordance with ISO-9001-200 norm. The product is homologated in accordance with the European Pressure Vessels Directive 97/23/CE and is approved by some of the world’s most important players on the power plants market including, naturally, the Spanish Nuclear Power Plant Owners Group, the Swedish Nuclear Power Plant Owners Group and the Mexican Federal Electricity Commission, among others. Recently the company’s has scored yet another approval, which was the homologation to supply nuclear valves on the Chinese market, granted by the Nuclear Chinese Authority. The company’s most recent success was obtaining the Gost Certificate which most likely will be a way in for the Russian market for Ringo Valvulas. This is however not the only way the company has been credited for worldwide. This April, at the 14th International Oil, Gas & Petrochemical Exhibition in Tehran, Iran, Ringo Valvulas was awarded by one of its clients, an Iranian company Sepanir, general contractor of South Pars gas field phases 15 and 16. Sepanir awarded Ringo Valvulas a small trophy; this proves that the Iranians are more than content of the level of professionalism of their Spanish colleagues. This token of appreciation assures the staff of Ringo Valvulas that they have chosen the right business model. Constant struggle to maintain the highest quality of company’s products sometimes results in certain recklessness regarding natural environment. This is however not the case at Ringo Valvulas. The company operates on ISO-140001 norm, which regulates all the business behavior on environmental care. The firm also has a high awareness regarding the storage of dangerous residues.

Recent activity

Ringo Valvulas is a company that grows exceptionally fast. Its turnover in 2006 amounted to 10 million euros and in 2007 close to 20 million. In 2009 it is estimated to be around 30 million. Even the global economy crisis doesn’t significantly slow the company down. In such difficult times as these, the firm is doubling its efforts to remain one of the most successful companies in the valve market. With such a high degree of saturation in the domestic nuclear market, nowadays the priority is to treat the international customers with extra care. Ringo Valvulas considers the ball valves and the emergency shut down valves (ESD valves) to be among its star products on the foreign markets. Recently, Ringo Valvulas completed a supply of ball valves to Nederland, where company Total is using them in its motor oil factory. For the company, another project of great importance at the moment is the construction of a new gas pipeline in Iran, where 25 large swing check valves were shipped recently. These large valves have all been tested on one of the largest valve test benches in Europe. The one in Zaragoza is brand new and is able to test valves up to 60 inches. It’s expected to be used frequently in the upcoming years as it is predicted that the large valves will be one of the company’s main focus in the near future. These large kinds of valves are used in oil and gas pipelines and it seems that it’s one of the branches that will continue to develop, regardless of the state of modern economy.

The prospects for the future

Lately, the business observed a considerable fall in the prices of raw materials which resulted in significant drop in prices of final products. Nevertheless, this event did not change the industry as all of the competitors reduced their prices. The future doesn’t seem to bring any major changes in the business. The demand of valves for nuclear plants is supposed to steadily rise in the forthcoming years, as well as the amount of valves needed for oil and gas pipelines. The company continues to diversify its offer and broaden the selection of valves available in order to increase its share in foreign markets. With its individual approach to each customer and highest quality of the product, it’s likely that Ringo Valvulas will acquire some new faithful customers in the nearest future.