Magdeburg Rolling Mill Tradition Living on Globally
As demand for industrial goods is gradually increasing again worldwide, this is greatly appreciated in Magdeburg by MWE Magdeburger Walzwerk Engineering GmbH. MWE, one of several successor organisations of the former SKET Group, has been awarded contracts for engineering, erection and commissioning of rolling mills, including from India.
By Torsten Scheer
(Volkstimme, 22.08.09)
Magdeburg. Following many months of 'eerie silence that had gripped the market', Michael Krampitz, Managing Director of MWE Magdeburger Walzwerk Engineering GmbH, is now getting better sleep. "The demand for rolling mills and related equipment is seen to reemerge", Krampitz says in a discussion with Volksstimme: "The situation has markedly eased off."
Operating at a profit and having 30 staff on the payroll, MWE specialises in the development, design, engineering, erection and commissioning of rolling mill equipment, while relying on ample resources of technological competence - on engineering drawings acquired by MWE of rolling mills once built by SKET. The drawings and descriptions are still of high value, typically when it comes to revamping and upgrading rolling mills in Russia which alone had 70 mills delivered by SKET during the G.D.R. era. Commissioning of a rolling mill of SKET make, delivered to Ukraine back in 1994, but not physically erected at the time, having a mill train for the rolling of steel bar product and being 600 metres in length, is about to be completed, Krampitz says. Despite long-time outdoor storage, the equipment can be placed into service without any major issues, reports Krampitz who considers the erection of the mill "a phantastic reference project for us": "Everybody is enthusiatic about SKET's quality." It continues to have an impact even now. Thus, for example, mill stands offered by MWE are still based on SKET technology.
SKET Mill stands like these seen in the photo from the archives are still operating worldwide.
MWE see themselves as a classical plant engineering business that is merely lacking own manufacturing facilities. MWE, like many competitors, complement their supplies by buying from international manufacturers rolling mill equipment and machinery built to MWE's drawings. Krampitz considers specifically India and Russia as up-and-coming markets that have a high potential. This is, the Managing Director knows for certain, where steel is in high demand, simply on the face of a great many infrastructure projects such as construction of bridges, or revamping of complete branches of industry. In India, the first genuine MWE mill train is being built, having an annual steel bar production capacity of 400,000 metric tonnes.
"While we still benefit from the SKET brand, the MWE brand is becoming increasingly established", asserts Krampitz who, in this context, boasts about further rolling mill projects being set up in Korea, India, and the European Union.
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