09/12/2008 15h15
Schimolz+Bickenbach invests 3 million Euro in Brazil
Valor Econômico - 09/12/2008
German distributor of steel-devices and stainless steel Schmoltz+Bickenbach will invest 3 million Euro (nearly R$ 7.5 million) in new machinery and equipment to expand its work in the country. "South America still has a small volume, but it has been growing", said the Group's World President Benedikt Niemeyer. The company, which grows 2% in its own country, foresees expansion of 8% in the country in 2008. The investments will be directed to the purchase of cutting equipment and the machining of high added value products, besides the installation of a new quality control and development laboratory, a previously outsourced task. Schmolz+Bickenbach, which produces abroad and distributes its products in the country, intends to reinforce its work in the mechanical construction segment, entering the oil and gas and sugar-alcohol areas, explained Niemeyer. This segment represents one fifth of the sales of the company. The biggest share, 70% of its revenue of R$ 85 million (US$ 44 million) last year, is linked to the area of steel devices, such as moulds and metalworking devices. The new investment matches the change of the subsidiary to a biggest head office of more than 10 thousand square meters, occupying the old Brasinca plant, ex-producer of dump bodies, by Anchieta Highway, in São Paulo. "The company has a different profile from others companies'. It is a distributor that has bought steel plants", says sales and marketing general manager Douglas de Paula e Silva. Schmolz+Bickenbach has four steel plants, four steel processing plants, and 25 centers of distribution in the world. The company studies having a steel processing unit in the State of São Paulo, affirmed Niemeyer. In 2007, the group's global revenue was 4.2 biliion Euro. The company entered the country by acquiring the assets of the ThyssenKrupp Açõs Especiais at the end of 2006.
