ABS – Acciaierie Bertoli Safau SpA, the Italian maker of special bar qualities (SBQs), inaugurated last week its new distribution and service centre in Värnamo, Sweden, the firm tells Kallanish.
This marks a shift for Danieli-owned ABS from a producer of special steels to an industrial partner that is closer to the customer, the company says. This involves integrating product, stock availability, processing, logistics and metallurgical consultancy within a single facility, it adds.
The new site is known as ABS Steel Nordic Service Centre. It covers an area of approximately 25,000 square metres, with a newly constructed building spanning 5,500m². It stores structural steel, high-strength and case-hardened steel, free-cutting steel and micro-alloyed steel. It operates cutting equipment that can process from 10mm to 560mm thick product.
Värnamo will be the hub for ABS’s Scandinavian operations. Last November at the Elmia Subcontractor trade fair, ABS announced the establishment of a new unit for Scandinavia, ABS Steel Nordic, plus the greenfield construction of the service centre.
“We have been operating here in Sweden with our own company since 2012, but, now, we are making a huge investment,” Elmia’s website quoted Eric Lennermark, chief executive of ABS Steel Nordic, as saying then. He noted that ABS is the number two SBQ supplier in the Nordics, with an annual sales volume of 55,000 tonnes.
