Divisions

The Steel Division is the largest business unit of voestalpine and generates about one third of the Group’s revenue. In the integrated steel plant in Linz, Austria, the division produces around 5.5 million tons of crude steel per year and processes it to steel strip that is hot- and cold-rolled, electrogalvanized, hot-dip galvanized, and organically coated. Its other activities include electrical steel strip, heavy plate production, a foundry, and a number of downstream sectors, such as the Steel Service Center and pre-processing. The products of the Steel Division are mainly supplied to the European automotive and automotive supply industries, the white goods industry, the civil engineering sector, and the energy industry. In these industrial sectors, voestalpine is among Europe’s leading suppliers.

The history of the Steel Division

As part of the war preparations by the National Socialist regime, the Linz plant was established in 1938 under the name „Hermann Goering Werke“ in order to produce steel for the arms industry.

During World War II, much of the work was done by Austrian and foreign forced laborers and prisoners from Nazi concentration camps. It is very important for voestalpine to deal with its history in an open and transparent manner. The Documentation Center, which was established in 2001, has been working with the Steel History Club to come to terms with this part of the past and to contribute to the public’s understanding of this period by way of publications, exhibits, and a works museum.

After the end of World War II, the plant was expropriated by the Allies and reestablished as the state-owned “Vereinigte Österreichische Eisen- und Stahlwerke AG” (VÖEST) in 1946.

In the early 1950s, the LD (Linz-Donawitz) process was developed in Linz. In 1952, the first steel plant that used the LD process was commissioned in Linz. This was a groundbreaking steelmaking process and even today, more than two thirds of the steel produced worldwide is based on this process. After the investment program “Linz 2010” was decided upon in 2002, capacity was expanded by just over 50% and the production facilities were consistently upgraded to position them in the top quality segment of steel production.

In 2007/08, the exchange-listed Böhler-Uddeholm Group was acquired and integrated into the voestalpine Group as the Special Steel Division; it comprises special steel and materials companies that are global leaders. The division operates steel plants in Austria, Germany, Sweden, and Brazil. The division has its own global sales and service center network that provides customers with special heat and surface treatment for product optimization and supplies all of the major industrial regions worldwide.

The Special Steel Division produces high-alloy special steels, also known as high performance metals, which have specifically developed characteristics with regard to resistance to wear, grinding ability, and toughness, as well as special forgings.

The largest customer groups in the tool steel sector are the automotive and consumer goods industries. Special materials are supplied to the power plant construction industry and the oil and natural gas industries. The aviation and energy generation industries purchase mainly closed die-forged parts. The Special Steel Division is the world market leader in tool steel and special alloys. The Group is in the number two position worldwide with regard to high-speed steel and valve steel.

The history of the Special Steel Division

The roots of the Special Steel Division are in the Austrian town of Kapfenberg, where a hammer mill was mentioned in official records as early as 1446. In the 19th century, the steel foundry plant in Kapfenberg belonging to the Österreichische Alpine Montan Gesellschaft passed into the possession of the Böhler brothers who were already focusing on the production of special steels.

Later, the company became the Böhler-Uddeholm Group, which went public successfully in 1995 and became the world market leader in the tool steel and special steel sectors through continued investments and global acquisitions.

In 2007/08, voestalpine AG acquired 100% of the shares of Böhler-Uddeholm AG by way of a public takeover bid.

The Metal Engineering Division integrates the voestalpine Group’s operations in the rail, turnout, railway infrastructure and services, wire, seamless tube, and welding technology segments. In the railway systems segment, in addition to the ultra long, head-hardened HSH rails and ready-to-install turnout systems, it provides a complete range of service packages for railway construction, including planning, transport, logistics, and system installation. The development of its own track-based monitoring equipment, for example to monitor axle temperatures, rounds out the range of this full-service provider. In the sector of railway systems, the Metal Engineering Division is both the market and the technology leader.

Furthermore, the division produces high-quality wire, for example for the automotive industry, seamless tubes for the oil and natural gas industry as well as welding consumables. The Metal Engineering Division has its own steel production facility in Donawitz, Austria, a major advantage when developing product innovations.

The history of the Metal Engineering Division

The roots of the present-day steel plant in Donawitz (Styria), Austria, go back to the first hammer mills that were mentioned in official records in 1436. In 1881, the iron and steel works located throughout the region were merged into the Österreichische Alpine Montangesellschaft (ÖAMG). At the end of the 19th century, Donawitz was the center of steel production and processing in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy.

In 1939, Alpine Montangesellschaft was merged with the factories in Linz, however, after World War II, they again became separate companies. On May 22, 1953, the second LD steel plant was commissioned in Donawitz, following the Linz plant that had begun operations in 1952. In 1973, Alpine Montangesellschaft merged with VÖEST in Linz, and the name was changed to VÖEST-ALPINE AG. voestalpine Stahl Donawitz GmbH was expanded in 2000 at a cost of around EUR 165 million, becoming THE state-of-the-art compact LD steel plant worldwide.

As a result of numerous investments and acquisitions, the Metal Engineering Division became a player in all of its high-tech segments and the global market leader in the railway sector.

The Metal Forming Division is a leading provider of high-quality downstream metal processing solutions in the segments of tubes and sections as well as pressed parts and components. It produces custom-tailored special and precision sections as well as welded tubes for construction applications, cab construction for commercial vehicles, and components for the aviation industry. The division supplies the automobile industry with a full range of pressed components for the body-in-white segment as well as highly innovative structural parts and safety components. The division also produces cold-rolled, special, precision thin strips and provides one-stop solutions in the segment of high-bay racking systems.

Throughout its history, none of the activities of the Metal Forming Division have been associated with steel production. The division has a high level of competence relating to all of the materials–both metallic and non-metallic–that it utilizes, for example, in aluminum forming for the automotive industry, in the forming of titanium components for the aviation industry, and in the processing of plastic and carbon fibers.

The history of the Metal Forming Division

Within the scope of the strategic realignment of the Group in 2001 and its shift to becoming a highly diversified technology Group, the Krems metallurgical plant became the Profilform Division, and the motion Division, which later became the Automotive Division, was established. When the Group’s structure was streamlined in 2012, these two divisions were merged to form today’s Metal Forming Division. Processing operations were reorganized and bundled and extensively expanded through investments and acquisitions.