NEWS
New developments in the Metals industry
ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe invests in modernising Ruukki Construction to focus on roofing business in Romania continuous caster in Duisburg-Beeckerwerth
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Trimet acquires aluminum smelter in Voerde
SSAB’s Hardox celebrates 40 years
conjunction with the combination of SSAB and Rautaruukki, operations serving the companies’ construction customers have been merged into a new division – Ruukki Construction. Ruukki is a well-known brand in the residential roofing business and sees growth potential in this business also in the Romanian market. However, market conditions in the steel structure and component businesses in Romania have remained weak, and Ruukki has been unable to turn the businesses back to profitability. As a consequence, Ruukki plans to discontinue these businesses and focus solely on the roofing business. There are plans to use the existing sandwich panel line and profiling lines in Romania in Ruukki’s other plants elsewhere. Visit: www.ruukki.com
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rimet Aluminium SE has acquired Voerde Aluminium GmbH and all 280 of its employees. The company manufactures primary aluminum and carbon anodes used in electrolysis for metal extraction. Trimet will continue to run the aluminum smelter and anode factory at its location on the Lower Rhine and will take over the full staff. With the Voerde location, the materials specialist has expanded its production capacity for primary aluminum, continuing the positive growth demonstrated over the past few years. “Key European industries have great demand for aluminum. With the Voerde location, we can meet the growing demand. The staff and the technical equipment are perfectly aligned with Trimet’s orientation as a provider of customised solutions,” says Dr Martin Iffert, CEO of Trimet Aluminium SE. Visit: www.trimet.de
Outokumpu creates special surface with an 800-tonne stainless steel façade for Baosteel’s head offices
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KS, a joint venture between Outokumpu and Baosteel Group in China, is delivering over 800 tonnes of high-quality coldrolled stainless steel plate for the cladding of Baosteel’s landmark head offices in Shanghai and Guangzhou in China.
12 Industry Europe
he current reline of blast furnace 2 in Duisburg-Schwelgern is being used as an opportunity to modernise a further key facility of ThyssenKrupp Steel Europe: Work has started on revamping one of the continuous casters in Duisburg-Beeckerwerth. The work is being carried out in parallel with the reline of blast furnace 2 in order to minimise production losses. The aim of the modernisation of continuous caster 1 is to improve slab quality and widen the product range. The modernisation will involve costs of around 90 million euros. “This is further evidence that despite all the burdens being imposed on us, for example in terms of energy prices, we continue to put our faith in the Duisburg site and are investing in its sustainability,” says Dr Herbert Eichelkraut, chief operating officer at Thyssen-
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Krupp Steel Europe. “This is an important signal for our employees, but also for our customers and suppliers.” Visit: www.thyssenkrupp-steel-europe.com
SAB’s aim was to develop a wear plate that was both harder and tougher than other steels on the market when the company produced Hardox 40 years ago. It needed to be hard to be able to withstand severe wear and tear over a long period of time and tough to be able to handle bending and intense use without cracking. “When the material was launched in 1974 as the ‘bendable wear plate’, it was the first wear plate in the world to combine both hardness and
toughness and also work well as construction steel,” says Christer Offerman, a wear plate specialist at SSAB. “The fact that Hardox is an excellent structural steel has been one of the keys to its success. This is of great importance to our customers. It means that they can produce effective solutions for thin and light dump bodies, containers and buckets, which can also handle high levels of wear and tear.” Visit: www.ssab.com
Baosteel’s head office in Shanghai includes three buildings with a total façade area of some 48,000 square metres. In Guangzhou, the main building of Baosteel’s southern headquarters will be 140 metres tall. Both projects began last year and are expected to be completed in 2016. Says Austin Lu, head of Outokumpu’s Asia-Pacific operations: “These build-
ings are a great opportunity not only for Baosteel to demonstrate its competence as a construction materials supplier, but also for Outokumpu to showcase its expertise in high-performance stainless steel. Both Baosteel and the architect are attaching great importance to the building materials used in these projects.” Visit: www.outokumpu.com
