OREANDA-NEWS. October 04, 2012. Wuhan Iron and Steel (Group) Corp. (WISCO) exclusively acquired ThyssenKrupp Tailored Blanks of ThyssenKrupp AG (TK), and the signing ceremony was held in Wuhan on that very day. Deng Qiling,the President Wuhan Iron and Steel (Group) Corp. (WISCO), and Edwin Eichler, Member of the ThyssenKrupp AG Board, signed the Agreement, and the representatives of high level from both sides witnessed the signing ceremony. The equity transfer will be realized upon the Agreement being approved by supervisory bodies and the relevant regulatory authorities of the both sides, reported the press-centre of WISCO.

Headquartered in Duisburg/Germany, ThyssenKrupp Tailored Blanks Group is the inventor and manufacturer of tailored blanks and primarily engages in R&D, manufacture and sales of tailored blank products. It is the leading supplier in this field with a roughly 40 percent global market share, and the sales in the 2011/2012 fiscal year were approx. 700 million Euros. The company has 14 plants in Germany, Sweden, the USA, Mexico Italy, Turkey, and China.

Tailored blanks are high-tech products. Tailored blanks are made of individual sheets of different steel grades, thickness or coatings, joined together by laser welding. Compared to common steel sheets, the products bring many advantages including lighter automobile body, higher driving safety and lower production costs. ?

In May, 2011 ThyssenKrupp AG intended to optimize investment portfolio, adjusted operating structure and implement strategic reform, and it planned to divest the ThyssenKrupp Tailored Blanks Group. WISCO immediately contacted ThyssenKrupp AG, and then started due diligence investigations in such aspects as finance, legal conditions, operation, technology, insurance and antitrust for his 14 plants of Tailored Blanks Group. It provided the quotation to ThyssenKrupp AG, to officially start negotiations on equity transfer terms and conditions.  

According to the introduction made by WISCO, its overseas projects mainly focused on resources previously. However, an international product processing company is acquired in this Project. The acquisition meets WISCO’s "Going Out" strategy and the strategic demands of building up a production base of automobile sheets. WISCO is optimistic about the global automobile market in the next 3-5 years and it believes that the market will maintain a stable growth trend, and strong growth spaces will be brought to the tailored blank market while all countries pay more attentions to energy saving and safety performance of the automobiles, especially in China and North America market.

In recent years, WISCO pays much attention to the manufacturing of automotive steel. In 2005 WISCO only produced 100,000 tons of automobile steel blank, while in 2011 WISCO, as the second largest automobile steel blank manufacturer in China, sold 2.12 million tons of automobile sheets. In the regard of research and development of new products, WISCO is the only steel enterprise to produce steel for high class automotive by independent innovation and development in domestic. WISCO has developed 173 grades of automobile sheet products in 7 series covering many criterion systems such as in China, Europe, North America and Janpan, and engaged with the individual standards for Volkswagen, GM, Nissan , Citron and so on to have achieved capability to supply the material with all specifications for the finished car.

The extra deep drawn cold rolled outer sheet with max.1930mm width and the hot dipped galvanized outer sheet with 2070mm extra width – extra deep drawn have filled the blanks of extra wide automobile body sheet in domestic. The super extra deep drawn automobile sheet DC07 has taken the customers’ fancy. The strength automobile sheet at classes 600MPa?800MPa have been put into application in mass and the hot-formed automobile sheet at class 1300MPa has been trial-produced successfully.

After the acquisition of ThyssenKrupp Tailored Blanks Group, firstly, taking the advantages of its technology, management, product and channel, WISCO will rapidly complete the international business strategic layout; secondly, WISCO will have a breakthrough in the field of high-end auto parts, and its market share will expand totally and it will become a globally competitive production base of automotive steel sheets, so that the core competitiveness will be significantly enhanced; thirdly, WISCO will have a more complete industrial chain, and the current steel processing business will have a development by leaps and bounds as a new profit growth point. In addition, this acquisition is also helpful for improving its international influence, accumulating overseas acquisition experiences and training international management talents.

Upon completion of the acquisition, WISCO said, it will revamp the existing equipment of ThyssenKrupp Tailored Blanks Group to develop the intensive processing business of steel materials in China. At the same time, WISCO, aiming at turning WISCO into the most competitive international steel service provider shortly, will respect the corporate culture of ThyssenKrupp Tailored Blanks Group and try to integrate Chinese and Western culture, and will further strengthen the strategic cooperation with ThyssenKrupp to stably develop tailored welding business.