Stainless steel long products

Ugitech produces and sells a wide range of stainless steel long products. Abigail Saltmarsh looks at recent developments at the company.

JACQUES AZOUBEL

Phone: +33 (0)4 77 53 29 92 Mobile: +33 (0)6 10 84 20 30 29, rue du Roule Fax: +33 (0)4 77 53 03 64 42350 LA TALAUDIERE E-mail: jacques.azoubel@wanadoo.fr

According to the CEO of Ugitech, Patrick Lamarque d’Arrouzat, the key to future success in the company’s stainless steel products is to follow market trends much more closely. This means for example, focusing more on quality and control of production, moving further towards smaller sizes, or offering faster delivery. There are also moves to look further towards markets outside Europe and to ensure products become even more sophisticated.

“We are more and more focused on technical products,” he explained. “A part of the market is still looking for commodities but our customers are also requesting more highly valued products and services.”

Highly developed

Part of the Schmolz and Bickenback Group, the world’s largest manufacturer, processor and distributor of special steel long products, Ugitech produces and sells a wide range of stainless steel long products, including bars, wire rods and wires. Over 100 years old, it has a highly developed research and development centre and sells around 200,000 tonnes of products every year.

Today, the company’s brand names include the famous Ugima®, Exhaust F1, Ugipure and Ugigrip, processed in plants in France, Italy and Germany. Its products are used for many applications in a diverse range of industries, including the automotive, aerospace

and nuclear industries. Among others, the company also supplies customers in oil and gas equipment, chemical industries, foodprocessing and construction.

Added value

One recent move that has helped Ugitech in its drive to offer more added value has been the acquisition of a manufacturer of chromiumplated products. “Eurothal is a small company but they are very good at developing different applications that have chromium surfaces for niche markets” said Mr Patrick Lamarque d’Arrouzat. “Under the Ugichrom and Eurothal brand names, we can now bring more added value to our customers.”

Smaller sizes and control

He said bringing as much added value to the customer was a vital part of focusing on what the customer really wants. This means looking at both products and services.

“We see the market going more and more towards smaller sizes,” he explained. “Electrical or electronics appliances, and engines in general are requiring smaller sizes of wires and bars. We need, therefore, to develop more products below half an inch (12 mm).

“Before, because of our capacity, we were limited as to what we could do in this area. Now we have expanded, and invested in our plants to be able to produce for these smaller demands.”

Control production is also a key area, he went on. A few years ago, only the aerospace, nuclear and medical industries required high levels of control.

“Now this is becoming more popular elsewhere as well, with surface and internal control,” he said. “They are required more and more by the automotive market as well as for the process and chemical industries.”

Visibility in orders

Yet developing services, he said, is as important as concentrating on products. Ugitech is continuing to develop its real time service for customers.

“This gives our customers real time information on their orders,” he explained. It is an E-service, available via the internet, which allows them to track their orders.

“We started it a few years ago with a very basic service. Now we’ve improved it and give our customers a much more precise visibility.”

He said another desire of customers was for faster delivery. “The 2009 economic crisis put all industrial supply chain actors in a very difficult cash position,” he explained. “They now do not want to hold stock but want quick delivery instead.

“For us this not only means supplying them when they need us to but also working with them to try to forecast their needs better. We need to be able to make their deliveries within a few weeks rather than a few months.”

Beyond Europe

Ugitech has always been a very European company but, said Mr Patrick Lamarque d’Arrouzat, that is starting to change. Emerging markets elsewhere are now offering strong potential for growth.

“There are certain areas outside Europe that are really becoming much more interesting for us now,” he explained. “These include of course Asia but also Latin America and Africa.”

And he added: “We expect lots of challenges in the future. We need to expand our sales force outside Europe using the Schmolz and Bickenback network with new people from those regions. We need to train them and to give them more of a background in stainless steel. That way, there will be more potential for growth.” n