core sector communique

Extended workbench: ThyssenKrupp Nirosta consolidates stainless steel service center operations

ThyssenKrupp Nirosta is to concentrate all its stainless steel service center operations in a single unit in the future. In addition to the Nirosta Service Center (NSC) based in Wilnsdorf (near Siegen), it will include EBOR Edelstahl GmbH (Sachsenheim near Stuttgart) and smb Chromstahl GmbH (Langenhagen near Hannover). They will then also operate as service centers under the name of ThyssenKrupp Nirosta. A resolution on this has now been passed by the Supervisory Board. The new structure will come into effect at the start of the new fiscal year on October 1, 2010. "With this step we can make it clearer to our customers that the service centers are extended workbenches of our production plants," says Karsten Lork, Head of Sales at ThyssenKrupp Nirosta.

ThyssenKrupp Nirosta already provides a number of primary processing services. These include: Slitting of coils from surplus production and specifically ordered starting material, marketing of these products as premium quality slit strip, and sale of material from the Krefeld, Benrath and Dillenburg cold-rolling mills. With the measure now introduced, these services will be extended to include the production and marketing of unfinished sheet and finished sheet and strip (brushing, grinding, painting, high-gloss polishing) within a single NSC unit. ThyssenKrupp Nirosta will then supply its products and services along the value chain "from a single source". "In addition to this benefit for our customers, the established advantages of a service center will be retained in full - such as flexibility, delivery performance, batch sizes in line with requirements, and further increased involvement in the development work and product services of ThyssenKrupp Nirosta," says Lork.

Apart from these advantages on the operating side, the reorganization will permit cost savings in particular in the administrative area. The restructuring of the service center operations will not involve workforce reductions for the locations in Wilnsdorf (98 employees), EBOR in Sachsenheim (100) and smb in Langenhagen (33).

ThyssenKrupp Nirosta is one of the world's leading manufacturers of stainless flat products with a broad range of stainless steel grades, sizes and finishes. The company has several sites in Germany and employs around 4,200 people.