German SBQ specialist Econsteel completes expansion

Econsteel, a company that combines development, distribution and processing of special bar quality steel (SBQ), is about to finalise the expansion it started two years ago. This followed an investment of several million euros.

Now in the final stage, Econsteel is completing a research and development centre in the next two to three months, marketing manager Janna Schroff tells Kallanish. A service centre for cutting material to the sizes required by the customers is already in operation and has been so since last year. It operates three sawing devices, which it plans to increase to six or eight over the coming years.

Although Econsteel is mostly known as a specialised distributor, the original idea when managing director Ralf Schaaf founded the company in 2008 was that of a consultancy on materials for steel consumers. “Many fabricating companies were not up to date regarding the range of possibilities of various steel types, and Mr Schaaf recognised the potential for that sort of information,” Schroff says.

One thing led to another, with customers asking Schaaf to also supply the steels he recommended for further production. More staff were then hired between 2008 and 2010, and a warehouse established in Rottweil in southwestern Germany.

In recent years, “… we have been mainly a distributor, and the original intention of the company shrank into the background,” Schroff explains. Econsteel will now bring this back to the forefront with the dedicated R&D centre, Meanwhile, with the operational service centre, Econsteel is taking on a role of a pre-production facility for its customers, she says.