As a result of the strategy implementation, the voestalpine Group realized selected acquisitions in the business year 2023/24. Although the size of these projects was moderate, they will strengthen the product portfolio in the processing segments in the future. However, voestalpine also initiated processes to sell companies in the past business year. These measures became necessary against the backdrop of changing economic conditions.
In October 2023, the Metal Forming Division completed an acquisition in the Warehouse & Rack Solutions business unit. It has been an important partner in the project implementation of innovative racking and storage systems for decades. The acquisition of Torri S.R.L. from Vicenza, Italy, by voestalpine subsidiary Nedcon B.V., headquartered in Doetinchem, the Netherlands, was aimed at strengthening the product range.
Torri S.R.L. has been developing, producing, and assembling high-quality racking systems and storage platforms for a wide range of requirements for over 50 years. The company recently achieved a revenue of around EUR 75 million with around 140 employees. The product portfolio comprises both manual and automated storage systems, including customized solutions for individual customer needs. The acquisition is an important addition to the Nedcon Group’s existing product and service offering. The acquisition not only enables the Metal Forming Division to consistently pursue its strategy of complex storage systems from development to assembly, but also to better serve the Southern European market.
In the business year 2023/24, the Metal Engineering Division made an acquisition as part of an asset deal in the Railway Systems business segment. With the acquisition of the production facilities for manufacturing concrete sleepers, voestalpine Railway Systems Nortrak LLC, USA, took an important step towards becoming a system solution provider for the North American railway market. With the transaction, 21 employees were taken over.
On March 14, 2024, the Management Board of voestalpine AG decided to initiate the sale process of Buderus Edelstahl. The special steel plant in Wetzlar, Germany, has already been restructured in recent years. With the planned sale, the management of voestalpine is now reacting to the changed economic conditions for industrial manufacturing companies. As a result, the High Performance Metals Division is concentrating its product portfolio on the technologically most demanding segment of high-performance materials. At the same time, the division is reducing its production share in tool steel and engineering steel in the performance-standardized segment.
With the divestment of voestalpine Automotive Components Nagold, the Metal Forming Division took a strategic step to consolidate the production network in the automotive supply sector in Germany. The company from Baden-Württemberg has around 130 employees and produces stator and rotor packages for electromobility in addition to stamped and formed parts for the automotive industry. The reorganization process currently being implemented is the consequence of the structural underutilization of capacity in the automotive supply industry in Germany. The internationalization strategy pursued in the Automotive Components division is unaffected by the reorganization and will be continued.
