BUMAX is a producer of high strength stainless steel fasteners that ensure reliability, promote safety and reduce lifecycle costs for customers around the world. BUMAX’s is headquartered in central Sweden’s steel district and has a global footprint with offices or distributors in more than 30 countries on four continents. BUMAX is fully owned by the listed Swedish Bufab Group.
Interview with Lars Holm, BUAMX Managing Director at BUMAX.
Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of the company?
Lars Holm: As a manufacturer of premium stainless steel fasteners, BUMAX serves the most demanding fastener applications that require properties such as high strength, corrosion resistance and temperature resistance. BUMAX fasteners also have a high resistance to galling. Market segments include marine, chemical process industries, automotive, energy, oil and gas, general engineering, construction, pulp and paper, water treatment, defense and space.
E.E: Tell us about a new product.
L.H: One of the most recent additions to the BUMAX high strength product family is BUMAX® NITRO 109, which is designed to achieve both excellent corrosion resistance in marine environments as well as delivering high strength, equivalent to 10.9 at large diameters – up to M36! We also have a number of additional exciting products and new production capabilities in the pipeline. Watch this space!
E.E: What are the ranges of products?
L.H: The BUMAX product offering combines both the corrosion resistance capabilities of different stainless steel material grades such as A4/316L, duplex, super-duplex, etc., with the strength of high tensile carbon steel from equivalent 8.8 up to and exceeding 15.9 –many of these are unique products not found anywhere else on the market.
E.E: At what stage is the market where you are currently active?
L.H: BUMAX fasteners can be a game changer for customers as our products can solve issues and challenges they might have had for a long time. We are relatively well known in our core markets in Europe, but we still have significant potential to grow our market share and benefit many more customers around the world.
E.E: What can you tell us about market trends?
L.H: Growing importance of sustainability – many industries are facing greater demands on sustainability and circularity – including product Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) and Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs). As industries better understand LCA costs, long-term value and sustainability, we anticipate new market opportunities and a growing demand for stainless steel materials. The fact is that premium stainless steel fasteners last longer, and require less maintenance and replacement, which also boost their sustainability profile.
Continued innovation – a great deal has happened with premium stainless steel fasteners in recent years, such as in terms of fastener properties and capabilities, and I expect this to continue in 2022 as new products are developed to meet even more demanding fastener applications.
Continued market instability – unfortunately, the Ukraine crisis, economic instability, supply chain issues and uncertainty look likely to continue throughout 2022. However, BUMAX has proved highly resilient to such issues and challenges. At BUMAX, we only source European steel of the highest quality and enjoy longstanding relationships with our suppliers. We also have our own production facilities in Sweden and continue to maintain large stocks of products ready for shipment to customers. This enables us to partially insulate ourselves from supply chain costs that will hopefully avoid significant price rises for our customers.
E.E: What are the most innovative products marketed?
L.H: We offer a wide variety of innovative stainless steel fasteners. Perhaps our strongest product is BUMAX® Ultra, which can be produced in strengths in excess of 15.9. Ultra draws on Nobel Prize winning quasi-crystalline precipitate technology. Other innovative products include DX 129, which offers a high corrosion resistant and far more reliable alternative to coated high tensile 12.9 carbon steel bolts. Our experts can advise customers on the particular BUMAX products that are best suited to meet their particular needs.
