NICHE MARKET LEADER Valbruna Stainless Steel is a leader in the steel industry as both a supplier and producer of stainless steel and special metal alloys. The company’s goal is to satisfy even the most sophisticated requests from the market place. The company is known internationally for its exceptional quality products which include stainless steels, tool steels, high nickel and titanium alloys.
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albruna Stainless Steel was founded in 1925 by Ernesto Gresele in Vicenza, Italy. The company originally specialised in forgings, but by 1939 it had moved into the stainless steel products sector. From the beginning, Valbruna had a strategy of serving the niche markets and providing high quality products and services to its clients. It is a strategy that has served this successful industry leader well over the years. The company now supplies stainless steel to a variety of industries including energy, aerospace, pharmaceutical and petrochemical. Today, Valbruna, which is still privately owned, produces over 170,000 tonnes of high quality special steel and is one of the largest stainless steel bar producers in Europe. Its main production sites are still located in Italy – in Vicenza and Bolzano; however, it has grown substantially over its 80-plus year history and now sells more than 65 per cent of its product
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to clients outside of Italy. The company has over 1500 employees, 19 branches throughout Europe and 15 affiliates worldwide. Valbruna specialises in the production of the following items: hot and cold finished bars; hot rolled, annealed and pickled wire rod for redrawp; and cold drawn wire in coils. Special application products, such as solenoid quality steels, boat shaft quality round bars, welding wire rod and stainless steel reinforced bars, are also available. In addition to Valbruna’s stainless steel production, the steel industry leader also has over 50 years of experience with laminated and forged bar production.
Drastic changes ahead In view of the threat coming from the Far East, the company believes that in order to succeed in today’s economy it is essential to be able to serve the market very quickly and supply the
quality requirement that the customer asks for. According to Massimo Amenduni, managing director of Italy-based steel specialists Valbruna, stainless has now become a commodity and has to be treated as such. Because of the increasing number of customers going to South East Asia, China in particular, production is gradually disappearing in Europe and it is very likely that “we will probably ultimately end up with an economy based on trading and nothing else.” At the moment, Valbruna is not planning to open an operation in the Far East as the quality level is far too low. In addition, the cost of a joint venture is still very unclear to the group in terms of who would be doing what.
Investing in technology and the future Since its beginning in 1925, Valbruna has always employed the philosophy that quality is the most important feature of its products,
