SIJ Metal Ravne, a member of the SIJ Group, has concluded a contract with Ebner for the purchase of a new continuous furnace for the profile rolling mill

Valued at close to EUR 2.8 million, the new furnace will be provided by Ebner, a renowned supplier of continuous furnaces. The Austrian company will also carry out a EUR 200,000 overhaul of the old but still well-functioning furnace that it supplied to SIJ Metal Ravne 20 years ago. In keeping with the philosophy of striving for synergies and making the most of the SIJ Group’s in-house knowledge, SIJ Ravne Systems will serve as an important partner, supplying some parts of the main technological equipment.

In recent years, SIJ Metal Ravne has been modernizing its production program: reducing the production of less demanding mass products, and expanding its portfolio of new, demanding steel products, especially tool and special steels, in line with the overall strategy of the SIJ Group. However, keeping up with new demands takes continuous investment in technology development and modernization.

The current investment will eliminate the bottlenecks arising from the change in the production mix in the profile rolling mill, and will make it possible to increase the manufacture of products for the most demanding customers, particularly in the energy and the oil and gas industries. Andrej Gradišnik, the Managing Director of SIJ Metal Ravne, said: "We firmly believe that after the 16 months set aside for the delivery and handover of the furnace, the new equipment will be operating at full capacity; even today we are seeing a number of customer inquiries that we will finally be able to meet in full. We are also planning to create eight new jobs to meet the needs of producing some extra 400 tonnes of rolled products per month."

"The success of the SIJ Group is based on specialization, producing demanding steel products with a high added value, which are less affected by cyclical fluctuations, as well as on product finalization and synergies among the Group’s companies. This includes our latest investment," said Anton Chernykh, President of the Board of Directors of the SIJ Group, explaining the anticipated results of the investment in the new continuous furnace: "The entire product will make it possible to increase the annual production and sales of rolled products by 5,000 tonnes or some EUR 15 million, increasing the value of SIJ Metal Ravne sales by around 8% compared to 2015."

 

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The SIJ Group is the largest Slovenian vertically integrated metallurgist group, ranked among the top market positions in the European and world niche steel markets. In addition to metallurgy (the core business), the SIJ Group is also involved in the food industry (investment in Perutnina Ptuj) and employs a total of some 7,000 people in Slovenia and abroad. In the first half of 2016 the SIJ Group generated EUR 413.9 million in revenues, with an EBITDA of EUR 60.1 million and a net profit of EUR 24.6 million. With products available on over 80 markets worldwide, the SIJ Group is one of Slovenia's largest exporters.

 

More info:

Dr. Denis Mancevič, Director of Corporate Communications

Email: denis.mancevic@sij.si