Austria-based steelmaker voestalpine has announced that it is building Europe's most modern wire rolling mill at its Leoben-Donawitz site in Austria. The company expects to complete the construction by 2016. The wire rolling mill will produce 550,000 mt of high quality wire rods each year for the automotive and energy sectors.
According to voestalpine's statement, the new line will completely replace the 34-year old rolling mill that is currently in operation. The contract to build the new rolling mill was awarded to the Italian constructor Danieli. There will be no production stoppages as a result of the investment. Voestalpine expanded its wire processing activities as recently as July 2012 by purchasing 54 percent of CPA Filament GmbH. As part of this joint venture, a new production facility for manufacturing ultra high-strength fine wires is being constructed at the site in Fürstenfeld and the facility is currently undergoing test operations. The transition to continuous production is scheduled for the beginning of 2014.
Voestalpine also stated that in future the company will primarily expand in regions outside Europe, in growing markets such as Asia or North and South America.