The Italian Calvi Holding Group and Hoesch Hohenlimburg GmbH have agreed in principle on the sale to Calvi of a 75.1% majority interest in the special profiles operations of Hoesch Hohenlimburg. The merger will create the world’s largest and technologically leading manufacturer of rolled, extruded and cold-drawn special profiles.

Calvi will hold the controlling interest and the industrial leadership. The new owner plans to make targeted investments to improve the technological capabilities of the plants in Schwerte. The upgrades will follow the commissioning of a new laser welding line in January 2005.

In an intensely competitive market, Hoesch Hohenlimburg’s Special Profiles business achieved sales of €125 million in the fiscal year ending September 30, 2005 following successful restructuring measures. With a workforce of 672, it is one of the region’s biggest employers.

Subject to approval by the supervisory bodies, the transfer is planned to take economic effect at the end of 2005.

Schwerter special profiles are engineered in cooperation with customers and are used as structural elements or components in most areas of the steel processing industry. The various profiling methods make it possible to shape the material to meet particular cost, structural and also visual requirements. Founded in 1868 as "Eisen-Industrie zu Menden und Schwerte AG", the business has been part of today's Hoesch Hohenlimburg GmbH since 1969 and is one of two operating groups.

Following the sale of the special profiles business, Hoesch Hohenlimburg — a steel-processing subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp Steel AG — will concentrate on medium-wide strip. In the fiscal year just ended, shipments were at a record 900,000 tonnes, and the group is next targeting shipments of one million tonnes of medium-wide strip. The ability to manufacture even small batches variably and cost-effectively coupled with short delivery times gives the company a high degree of flexibility in meeting a broad range of customer requirements.