The Feralpi Group accelerates in Germany with a new maxi investment of 60 million euros which, over a two-year period, will bring the yearly production of ESF Elbe-Stahlwerke Feralpi GMBH (Riesa, Saxony) to 1.3 million tons of steel, consolidating the company’s leadership in the European steel industry.
The investment, which is part of the 2019 activities plan, will strengthen the current production of reinforcing bars (in bars and coils), to meet the growing demands of the German market in particular, a market which continues to prove solid and highly receptive, with infrastructure projects that feed an altready positive demand for steel.
From a technological point of view, the plant will be designed according to the best technologies in order to combine production efficiency with further qualitative improvements, two objectives combined with the need to make sustainable development a fundamental driver for the region in compliance with the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) of the United Nations, in which the Feralpi Group defines its growth strategies.
The above strategy includes not only the maximum reduction of environmental impact (including acoustic pollution), but also the achievement of the highest safety standards possible and – not least – the ability to exploit the full potential offered by digitalisation processes for a 4.0 industry.
The new rolling mill will also make production much more flexible, in order to respond quickly to increasingly customized requests.
With this investment, the Feralpi Group renews and strengthens its presence in Germany borne in 1992 with the acquisition of an important steel plant in Riesa in Saxony, and which over the years has taken on increasingly significant importance (in 2018 the percentage of consolidated group turnover generated outside Italy was 62%), making the Italy-Germany pairing a steel hub of reference.
To date, more than 700 people are employed in Germany and, with this investment, ESF Elbe-Stahlwerke Feralpi GMBH will create 80 new jobs focused above all on young people with strong know-how orientated towards digital transformation in order to enrich the wealth of skills necessary to confront the development of 4.0 industry models.
The comment
«Twenty-five years ago – underlines Giuseppe Pasini, president of the Feralpi Group – we believed in the German market, in the capabilities and passion of a territory favorable to steel production. Today the numbers and results tell us that Germany is a center of gravity. We have therefore chosen to make our German company, ESF Elbe-Stahlwerke Feralpi GMBH, an even more robust column of our business, in order to meet a growing demand for rolled steel».
“The plant – the president points out – will be a model of sustainability because it will create new opportunities for growth and will do so by redistributing value inside and outside the company».