voestalpine company Uddeholms AB is celebrating 350 years of innovation at the site in Hagfors, Sweden

Over a period of three and a half centuries, the former family-run company in Hagfors has advanced to become a global player in tool steel. In 1991 Uddeholms AB and Austrian-based special steel manufacturer Böhler combined to form Böhler-Uddeholm AG which was subsequently listed on the Vienna Stock Exchange. The group was taken over by voestalpine in 2007 and is now part of the Group’s High Performance Metals Division.

High-tech steels from Uddeholms AB are used wherever extreme load-bearing capacity and precision are in demand, for example, in punching and forming tools used in the manufacture of automotive body parts, and in special forms for the production of smartphone and computer displays. The average export rate is 94 percent, with more than half of products headed for markets outside Europe.

The company operates its own research laboratory, with around 50 employees working to strengthen its standing as an innovation leader; it owns more than 300 patents.

Over the past ten years voestalpine has invested more than EUR 130 million in continually upgrading technology at the Hagfors site, with a record sum of EUR 24 million invested in the business year 2017/18 alone. As part of the Group-wide activities in additive manufacturing, the current focus at Uddeholms AB lies in expanding metal powder capacities. In addition to the existing pilot plant, a large unit for the production of extremely fine powder—the pre-material for additive manufacturing (3D printing)—will go into operation this fall. Other investment projects include six new, fully digital heat treatment facilities, and enhancements to remelting furnaces in order to produce even higher steel grades in future. There is also consistent investment in environmental protection: thanks to a new, large-scale de-dusting facility, Uddeholms AB has succeeded in reducing dust emissions to almost zero since 2016, while conversion from oil to liquefied natural gas as an energy source has also resulted in huge CO2 emissions reductions. The aim is to convert to biogas over the next few years in order to operate entirely without the use of fossil fuels by 2020.

In Sweden voestalpine is represented by six companies from all four divisions (Steel, High Performance Metals, Metal Engineering and Metal Forming). During the business year 2017/18 1,320 employees generated a total revenue of around EUR 420 million. The export rate for the Swedish Group companies is 84 percent. The most important customer segments include the mechanical engineering, automotive, white goods, and consumer goods industries. As of April 1, 2018, employees in Sweden are now also able to acquire shares in their parent company via the voestalpine employee participation plan, which allows them to participate directly in the success of the technology and capital goods Group.