Van Merksteijn Steel Group and Südwest Beteiligungen, the parent holding of Badische Stahlwerke, have completed their merger and established a new company named Reinforcing Steel Europe B.V.
The Dutch and German firms announced in January they agreed to merge to join forces in the reinforcing steels market (see Kallanish 9 January).
In a joint statement this week, they state the merger allows Südwest to optimise the production capacity of its two steel and wire rod plants, Badische Stahlwerke in Kehl and Moselstahlwerk in Trier. Van Merksteijn Steel Group, on the other hand, benefits from a secured supply of sustainable wire rod, produced in electric arc furnaces.
The Dutch Group revealed plans some years ago to build an EAF mill in the Netherlands to guarantee supply of wire rod feedstock needed for its wire and mesh production. The plan was however abandoned partly due to difficulties with the zoning plan.
The Reinforcing Steel Europe Group (RSE) consists of Badische Stahlwerke (BSW), Moselstahlwerk (MSW), Baustahlgewebe, Neckardraht and BVG Bewehrungsstahl Vertriebsgesellschaft (BVG) in Germany; Van Merksteijn Steel in The Netherlands; Intersig in Belgium; and Intersig France and VMI Atlantic in France, among others.
The head office will be located in Almelo, the Netherlands, and the board of directors will consist of Markus Weber, Markus Menges, Kris Van Ginderdeuren and Jan Broos.
Christian Koehl Germany