Klöckner & Co is promoting a new image as it is developing from a steel distributor to a service centre and higher value-added business company.
The German-based group “is seen as a steel distributor, but actually we have become a metals processor company,” chief executive Guido Kerkhoff said during a conference call on Wednesday.
The company has in recent years significantly shifted its focus to its higher-value processing and metalworking business in its core markets of North America and the DACH region – Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It divested the distribution-only sites in western Europe and in Brazil. In 2024, the group already generated over 80% of its sales from the steel service centre and higher value-added business.
Through targeted investments, distribution centres were transformed into production and processing hubs for higher-value metal solutions, Kerkhoff pointed out. “Despite the difficult environment last year, we have continued our investments, rather than postponing them, which sent a positive signal,” he said.
In Switzerland, a country with a night ban for road haulage, the company optimised logistic links between railway and road haulage, using trains at night, and reloading to trucks for close-range delivery in the morning. That allowed it to close several warehouses used only for close-range distribution.
The group’s many activities in North America, especially, have spurred the development, Kallanish heard Kerkhoff say during the call. One major move there currently is the firm’s investment in a flat-rolled aluminium processing facility on the campus of Aluminum Dynamics LLC (ADL), a subsidiary of Steel Dynamics Inc. (SDI).
Another signal for Klöckner’s new image is the relocation from Duisburg to Düsseldorf, although it did not highlight this during the call. Duisburg, the unofficial capital of Germany’s rust belt, was Klöckner’s headquarters for decades. Along with the demise of the city’s steel industry and overall social environment, Klöckner moved to a new home in Düsseldorf last year, a city known for arts, fashion, and techno culture.
Christian Koehl Germany
