December 02, 2008

SSAB inaugurates plate service center at Kunshan in China

SSAB announced that it has inaugurated a new plate center for warehouse and wear parts processing in China, the first for SSAB in the Asia Pacific region. SSAB held a grand ceremony for the inauguration of SSAB Swedish Steel (China) Co Ltd in Kunshan.

Approximately CNY 100 million was invested in the new Kunshan Plate Center. The new Plate Center is located at the Kunshan New & Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone. It will be operated by SSAB’s Heavy Plate Division, which is based in the Swedish town of Oxelösund. The Plate Center occupies a total of 50,000 square meters out of which 35,000 square meters comprises a stockyard. It holds approximately 20,000 tonnes of steel plate, which is close to the capacity at the central stockyard in Oxelösund.

The new Kunshan Plate Center has high precision, Messer numerically controlled plasma cutters and oxygen fuel flame cutting machines and can produce wear parts with a wide range of thickness. Since Submerged Cutting technology is employed, the heat affected zone is narrower, the loss of hardness for the whole component can be effectively prevented and the distortion of the cut part can be reduced.

Mr Olof Faxander president & CEO of SSAB Swedish Steel Group presided over the inauguration and ribbon cutting ceremony. Mr Faxander in his address at the ceremony said “With the fast development of the Chinese economy, there has been rapid growth in demand for our products. The investment in a new Plate Center in China shows our commitment to this market. Meanwhile, this is also one of the important steps for SSAB Swedish Steel Group’s global expansion strategy.”

Mr Faxander said “The establishment of the new Plate Center is aimed at providing Chinese customers who do not possess processing capability with a streamlined component processing service at a reasonable price and first-class quality and eliminating the inconvenience of looking for a third-party to produce wear parts.”