voestalpine to invest EUR 40 million in high-tech forging line for the production of high-quality pre-materials for aircraft components

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voestalpine to invest EUR 40 million in high-tech forging line for the production of high-quality pre-materials for aircraft components

LINZ, 10-May-2017 — /EuropaWire/ — As one of the world’s leading suppliers to the aerospace industry, voestalpine is consistently driving its growth in this technologically sophisticated future market. As recently as last December the Group agreed on a major EUR 40 million investment in a new high-tech forging line for the production of high-quality pre-materials for aircraft components. Now a further EUR 30 million will go to the Kapfenberg site in Austria over the next two years, to finance a state-of-the-art production facility for aerostructures including highly stress-resistant engine mounts, wing and fuselage components, and landing gear parts. The fully automated facility is scheduled to commence operations as early as 2019.

With its pioneering technologies for the aerospace sector, the Special Steel Division is making a considerable contribution to achieving the voestalpine Group’s strategic target of raising the share of overall revenue generated in the growing mobility sector to 50 percent by 2020. voestalpine high-performance materials and advanced special forgings have become an indispensable part of models made by the major aircraft manufacturers, in particular Airbus and Boeing. This latest EUR 30 million investment in a new production line at Group company Böhler Schmiedetechnik in Kapfenberg, Austria, is designed specifically to meet the growing demand for extremely high load-bearing, weight-saving structural parts in titanium and special steels which are used in aircraft construction.

With an average annual growth rate of over three percent, the aerospace industry demonstrates a clear and continuing upward trend. In order to consistently extend our leading position in this technologically extremely challenging market, we are increasingly investing in development and ongoing improvements to the quality of our products and processes. Investment in an additional state-of-the-art, fully automated production facility, which fully meets all Industry 4.0 parameters, marks an important step towards digital data collection throughout the entire manufacturing process for aerospace components at our site in Kapfenberg.

Franz Rotter, Member of the Management Board of voestalpine AG and Head of the Special Steel Division
The voestalpine Group currently generates around EUR 300 million in the aerospace customer segment, and this figure should increase to EUR 500 million over the medium term. The market forecasts are encouraging, with estimated global demand for more than 30,000 new aircraft over the next 15 years.

Böhler Schmiedetechnik GmbH & Co KG and the Special Steel Division
Böhler Schmiedetechnik GmbH & Co KG, based in Kapfenberg, Austria, is a global development partner and leading supplier of special forged components in high-performance materials such as high-alloy steels, nickel-based alloys, and titanium alloys. For more than 20 years the aerospace sector has been the company’s main market, and currently over 90 percent of its EUR 240 million in revenue (business year 2015/16) is generated in this sector. In addition to producing aircraft components, the product portfolio also includes precision, high-performance parts for other high-tech industries. Böhler Schmiedetechnik GmbH & Co KG has a workforce of 770 employees and supplies more than 200 customers worldwide.

The voestalpine Group’s Special Steel Division is focused on technologically sophisticated materials and customer-specific services. Due to its unique sales and service network at 160 sites around the world it offers customers material availability and processing as well as local points of contact. The division is the global market leader for tool steel and a leading provider of high-speed steel, valve steel, and other products made of special steels, as well as powder materials, nickel-based alloys, and titanium. The most important customer segments are the automotive, oil and natural gas exploration, and mechanical engineering industries as well as the consumer goods and aerospace industries. In the business year 2015/16, the division reported revenue of around EUR 2.7 billion, of which about 50% was generated outside Europe, and an operating result (EBITDA) of EUR 364 million; it has around 13,500 employees worldwide.

The voestalpine Group
In its business segments, voestalpine is a globally leading technology and capital goods group with a unique combination of material and processing expertise. voestalpine, which operates globally, has around 500 Group companies and locations in more than 50 countries on all five continents. It has been listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange since 1995. With its top-quality products and system solutions using steel and other metals, it is one of the leading partners to the automotive and consumer goods industries in Europe and to the oil and gas industries worldwide. The voestalpine Group is also the world market leader in turnout technology, special rails, tool steel, and special sections. In the business year 2015/16, the Group generated revenue of EUR 11.1 billion, with an operating result (EBITDA) of EUR 1.6 billion; it has around 48,500 employees worldwide.

About voestalpine
In its business segments, voestalpine is a globally leading technology and capital goods group with a unique combination of material and processing expertise. With its top-quality products and system solutions using steel and other metals, it is one of the leading partners to the automotive and consumer goods industries in Europe and to the oil and gas industries worldwide.

SOURCE: voestalpine AG

Peter Felsbach
Head of Group Communications & Spokesman
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