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With operations in France, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Romania, Bosnia and Macedonia, Mittal Steel is Europe’s second largest steel producer – and the number one in quality long products. Boosted in particular by the acquisition of Mittal Steel Poland, total European shipments reached 18 million tons in 2004 compared with 10.7 million tons in 2003. Revenue increased from $3.8 billion in 2003 to $9.9 billion in 2004. Operating income of $2 billion compared with $317 million the previous year.
Among the highlights of last year was the acquisition of Polskie Huty Stali (now renamed Mittal Steel Poland), completed in March. Mittal Steel bought a 69 per cent shareholding in the company, which has since increased to 72.4 per cent, together with an option to acquire an additional 25 per cent. The acquisition established Mittal Steel as the leading steel producer in Central and Eastern Europe. A successful turnaround was achieved at Mittal Steel Poland within a matter of months of the company’s acquisition.
Mittal Steel has integrated the management of the four underlying operations of Mittal Steel Poland and started to restructure the business in accordance with the medium-term business plan agreed with the Polish state as part of the purchase agreement. It has also commissioned a number of major projects as part of a planned €500 million investment programme aimed at improving product quality and productivity.
The Group also acquired the Bosnian company, BH Steel, now renamed Mittal Steel Zenica, and a majority stake in the Ljubija iron ore mines in Bosnia. Mittal Steel plans a series of targeted investments aimed at lifting production at Mittal Steel Zenica from a legacy level of approximately 200,000 tons a year.
The acquisition of a 800,000 ton hot strip mill and a 750,000 ton cold rolling mill in Skopje, Macedonia significantly expanded Mittal Steel’s downstream activities in 2004. Combined with the downstream activities in Romania at Hunedoara (acquired in April 2004), Roman and Iasi (acquired in 2003), Mittal Steel now operates a total of 15 downstream mills in Europe, and is one of the major producers of pipes and tubes.
Mittal Steel Hamburg
Mittal Steel Hamburg is Europe’s only integrated mini-mill. It operates a DRI plant, an EAF-based steel-making plant, continuous casting facilities and a high-speed rolling mill. It is acknowledged as a global leader in both high-quality wire rod production and the integrated mini-mill process. It is also a pioneer in areas such as melt shop productivity and energy efficiency.
The product range includes wire rods for applications such as springs, piano strings and aircraft cable. Mittal Steel Hamburg’s subsidiary, Kent Wire Limited, is a leading producer of fabric reinforcement in the UK.
Mittal Steel Hochfeld
Mittal Steel Hochfeld produces high-quality wire rods. Its modern rod mill manufactures high-quality products such as tyre cord, free cutting steel, cold heading steel, spring steel, welding wire, roller bearing steel and low carbon steel. The company is located close to its major market in the Rhine-Ruhr area. The neighbouring Duisburg-Ruhr harbour area provides excellent transportation links
for export markets.
Mittal Steel Ruhrort
Mittal Steel Ruhrort specialises in high-quality steel grades, which it supplies as continuous cast blooms or rolled billets. The company manufactures its products from 1.3 million tonnes per annum of hot metal supplied by Thyssen Krupp Stahl. Low residual steel is then manufactured at the plant’s converter shop using secondary metallurgical equipment. The plant’s continuous casting machine is one of the most modern in the world. Subsequent soft reduction in the straightening zone of the caster provides a bloom with low centre segregation.
Mittal Steel Gandrange
Mittal Steel Gandrange is one of Europe’s leading producers of wire rod. It produces
a large range of long products, including wire rod, bars and billets of various sizes, for a variety of applications. Its steels are employed extensively in the automotive, construction and engineering industries. They are marketed principally to customers in the primary processing industries for uses such as wire drawing, cold heading, bright drawing, tyre reinforcement, forging, springmaking, shock absorbers and free cutting. Its subsidiary, SMR, produces high quality wire rods and cold drawn steel bars.
Mittal Steel Ostrava
Mittal Steel Ostrava is the largest integrated steel producer in the Czech Republic, producing around 3.5 million tons of liquid steel a year. It supplies companies in the construction, mining, machinery, energy, transportation, water and oil and gas markets. Some 40 per cent of sales are exported, the majority to other EU countries.
Mittal Steel Ostrava produces flat products, long products, tubes and a range of engineered products that includes medium and heavy shaped bars. Among the high-quality products introduced in recent years are dynamo steel, ribbed square core wire for reinforcing concrete, round section bars and oil tubes with Cr-Mo steel.
Tube production has been expanded to take in seamless and welded tubes with external polyethylene insulation and external and internal cement insulation.
Mittal Steel Poland
Mittal Steel acquired the former Polskie Huty Stali, Poland’s largest integrated steel-maker, in March, 2004. Headquartered in Katowice, Mittal Steel Poland consists of four plants located in Dabrowa, Krakow, Sosnowiec and Swietochlowice. It boasts a full production system – from pig iron to final, highly processed steel products – producing around 6.5 million tons of liquid steel annually.
The company manufactures both flat and long products for industries such as construction, automotive, household appliances, transportation, mining and steel constructions. The range of products includes rails, sections, rolled products, construction mats, various types of wire, strip, hot rolled and cold rolled sheets, mining sections and sheet piles.
Mittal Steel Galati
Mittal Steel Galati is the largest integrated iron and steel works in Romania. Built in the 1960s, Mittal Steel Galati is an integrated blast furnace BOF operation, producing in excess of 5 million tons of liquid steel annually. It produces high-quality plate, hot and cold rolled sheet, galvanised sheet, large diameter longitudinally welded pipes, blooms and billets. Located at the Danube port of Galati, Mittal Steel Galati enjoys ready access to the world’s sea routes as well as other transport infrastructure. Customers include the shipbuilding, automotive, construction and oil and gas industries. Two-thirds of production is exported – to more than 40 countries.
Mittal Steel Zenica
Mittal Steel acquired 51 per cent of BH Steel in Bosnia in August 2004. Mittal Steel Zenica produces a variety of long products, including forgings, bar and rod. The investment programme at Mittal Steel Zenica is aimed at restarting the integrated production route, commissioning electric arc furnace production, modernising the remaining facilities and improving the product portfolio.
Mittal Steel Hunedoara
Mittal Steel Hunedoara was acquired by Mittal Steel in April 2004 and is located near Romania’s western border. The company produces long products – continuous cast billets, hot rolled profiles, hot rolled bars, structural steel and wire rod. It has an annual steel-making and rolling capacity of approximately in excess of 800,000 tons and enjoys access to the Danube and Black Sea.
A $12 million investment programme is aimed at improving the quality and technology of Mittal Steel Hunedoara’s production facilities over the next ten years. The main focus of that investment will be the modernisation of the electric arc furnace and the upgrading of the finishing mills.
Mittal Steel Iasi
Located in the industrial zone of Iasi, Mittal Steel Iasi produces longitudinally welded carbon steel tubes and cold formed profiles with an annual production capacity of 380,000 tons.
Mittal Steel Roman
Mittal Steel Roman was acquired by Mittal Steel in December 2003. Located in Roman, Romania, the company produces a variety of seamless carbon and low alloyed steel pipes – including casing, tubing and line pipes – and has a capacity of 550,000 tons a year. The company’s products are used in the oil and gas, fossil fuel and nuclear energy, machine engineering and civil engineering industries.
Mittal Steel Skopje
Mittal Steel Skopje produces hot rolled coils and sheets, cold rolled coils and sheets, HDG and PPGI coils. Following its acquisition by Mittal Steel in May 2004, Mittal Steel Skopje redesigned its product offering to focus on products in short supply in and strengthen the product profile.
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