For Erne Fittings, the world’s leading supplier of butt-weld fittings, “the safe connection” is more than just a slogan: Passion and perfectionism are put into its safe pipe fittings for permanent welds. Every safe connection is also a strong pillar of success in risk and supply chain management and a solid foundation that Erne relies on during today’s multiple crises.
What did we learn from supply chains? Single sourcing is dangerous because being heavily dependent on only one supplier does not enable companies to spread the supply risk. The Covid-19 pandemic has also demonstrated that the single-sourcing effect on supply chains can also be caused by a dependency on several suppliers from only one country.
In China, President Xi Jinping’s Zero-Covid approach brought a sudden halt to entire regions of this huge country. Nothing works anymore, no one leaves their home, nobody works or produces things, and no one exports or imports.
We’re all in the same boat
Container ship crews – mostly Asian – were no longer allowed to board or leave a vessel. Container ports came to a standstill, and the entire cycle of transporting and shipping goods was bogged down – until today.
Lockdowns which blocked the global economy ensued. As the restart did not take place simultaneously, the world economy struggled to restore its rhythm. Add to that the war, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. While Ukraine has become the main supplier of raw materials and intermediate goods for many industry sectors, the Western world saw itself forced to act by imposing sanctions on Russia.
Sanctions, not only harm Russia’s economy in the medium and long term but which negatively impact the energy supply chains of the Western world in the short term.
The day when Erne’s world stood still
In March 2020, the world woke up to a pandemic. A scenario that caught virtually every country and every business unprepared and unaware – Erne Fittings was no exception.
Our customers supply products and services to pipeline engineering and construction companies, so-called EPC companies that are active in the energy industry all over the world, providing products needed to plan and erect ready-to-use plants. They focus on power plants in the oil, gas, nuclear, and district heating sector as well as on hydrogen plants, given the agenda for decarbonisation.
With the onset of the energy crisis and the plunging oil price almost all our clients brought their projects to a sudden halt. New projects in the pipeline were stopped as well or no longer pursued. Our suppliers were forced to either reduce their production or cease it altogether. The market came to a standstill overnight. The pandemic, however, also demonstrated that costs alone were not the only decision-making criteria for management. While laying off staff may have reduced staff costs in the short term, this decision would have been toxic as soon as operations were resumed. The same applies to supply chain management.
Even though today, three years later, multiple crises – a seemingly never-ending pandemic, a geopolitical apocalypse, the energy transition against the backdrop of the climate crisis – present an array of new challenges, Erne Fittings is on track and fit for the future with its strategic and enterprise risk management:
Erne is fit for the future
Turbulent times require thorough planning and a carefully thought-out course of action. Securing raw materials and energy on the supply side for the long term, although customer demand indicates smaller volumes delivered faster in shorter cycles, is a business risk and a challenge for the entire supply chain. A mere mathematical calculation of the risk is in this case not good enough as all players in our market rely and depend on each other like never before. Longstanding, personal and trustworthy relationships have become an essential element of our risk management. The same applies to our customers, our suppliers as well as our partners, such as banks and insurance. What we cannot influence is the geopolitical risk and with it the level of uncertainty that we feel in the global economy. This has drastically increased over the last five years.
About Erne Fittings GmbH
Erne Fittings, founded in 1920 in Vorarlberg, Austria’s most Western province, is the world’s leading manufacturer of top-notch butt-weld fittings for the approved market, focusing on the energy industry. Erne Fittings employs about 350 people at its production facilities in Schlins, Mürzzuschlag (Austria) and Jubail (Saudi Arabia) and achieves an annual turnover of about EUR 70 million.

Bernd Klemisch
Member of the Executive Board and CFO
Erne Fittings GmbH
T+43 5524 501 102
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