Press 2010

Special steel maker presents positive balance sheet for 2009

Lindlar, 06.05.2010. The Lindlar-based producer of special steels Schmidt + Clemens (S+C) is today presenting its balance sheet for the last financial year. Despite a drop in sales, S+C nevertheless achieved a highly satisfactory level of profit. Sales of the group of companies fell in the 2009 financial year from €369 million to €228 million. At its operating site in Germany, S+C recorded sales of €126 million (in 2008: €226 million).

"We have a challenging financial year behind us, dominated by the banking and worldwide economic crisis," reports managing partner Jan Schmidt-Krayer. "We adjusted in very good time to this situation and were able to respond with the corresponding measures." As Mr. Schmidt-Krayer further reports, investment in research and development and in new plant and machinery continued, despite the crisis. It was clear to everyone within the group, he explains, that only in this way would they be able to emerge stronger than before. "Training and the development of junior management personnel were other key issues for us in 2009," Mr. Schmidt-Krayer continues. "After all, the demographic development clearly tells us that we have to prepare ourselves now for the years ahead."

The Schmidt + Clemens Group founded two new companies in the year under review: S+C Extrusion Tooling Solutions GmbH (ETS) based in Lindlar, and Schmidt + Clemens Saudi Arabia Ltd. ETS specializes in the production of tools and the provision of services for the extrusion industry, while in the Kingdom of Saudi-Arabia, S+C will in future manufacture products for the petrochemical industry.

A major highlight in the year 2009 was the inauguration of the new Technical Centre at the group's parent site in Lindlar-Kaiserau. With over 1500 m² of floor space, the Technical Centre now houses laboratories, smelting and vacuum furnaces that have been specially installed for research purposes, as well as office and conference rooms for the approximately 25 staff members of the Research Department. One outcome of the extensive research and development activities conducted by S+C was presented at the 2009 "Achema", the leading chemical industry fair, in Frankfurt: special aluminous alloys, the so-called ‘Centralloy® HT family'. "A new dimension in materials development is enabling a leap forward into the world of nanotechnology, for instance with our Centralloy® 4852 Micro R material," says Dr. Dietlinde Jakobi, responsible for Metallurgical Services and Technical Marketing at S+C.

"We expect our markets to stabilize in 2010," says managing director Dr. Henning Kreisel. "However, the current financial year will not yet see sales return to the level they stood at before the crisis. It will take some time for that situation to be achieved. What is much more important is that we suffered no real damage last year and that we have the financial resources needed for the upswing, and above all for our strategic ideas."

Schmidt + Clemens is a leading producer of special steel components. The main areas of sales for the group's products are petrochemicals, the separating technology sector, energy engineering, and extrusion and rolling technology.

The Schmidt + Clemens Group employs around 950 people worldwide (including some 600 in Germany), and apart from the parent plant in Germany, also has production facilities in Brazil, Spain, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Malaysia and the Kingdom of Saudi-Arabia. As well as vertical and horizontal centrifugal castings, the Group also produces static castings. Forgings for the extrusion and plant and mechanical engineering industries complete the range of capabilities. The British subsidiary, S+C Bowers & Jones Ltd., manufactures rolls for a broad spectrum of applications.