Harsco Corp. announced its acquisition of Evulca, a France-based specialist with more than 30 years experience providing conveyor belt management and maintenance services to the steel industry and other industrial clients. Terms of the cash acquisition were not disclosed.

Announcing the acquisition, Geoffrey D. H. Butler, President and CEO of Harsco’s MultiServ mill services division said, “Evulca’s niche expertise in conveyor belt technologies and maintenance adds another strategic service to our round-the-clock, on-site support of the world’s leading steel companies. A typical integrated steelworks may have as much as 40 to 50 miles of conveyor belts on its premises. We see good strategic opportunities to extend this focused full-service expertise across the broader scope of our worldwide MultiServ customer network.”

Privately-held Evulca recorded 2004 sales in excess of $5 million, led by its ongoing contract services to Arcelor’s Sollac Fos steel works in southern France.

The MultiServ division provides the world’s leading steelmakers with a comprehensive range of services that support the entire steelmaking process, including integrated materials handling, semi-finished and finished product management, and by-product recovery and recycling. The division operates at some 160 mills in over 30 countries, making MultiServ the world’s single largest provider of on-site, outsourced mill services to the steel and metals industries.

Harsco Corp. is a $2.5 billion diversified industrial services and engineered products company whose market-leading businesses provide mill services, access services, engineered products and services, and gas containment and control technologies to customers worldwide. The company employs 18,500 people in more than 40 countries of operation.