ThyssenKrupp Stahl-Service-Centre GmbH, a subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp Steel AG, is ready to serve important markets in Eastern Europe from a service centre just opened in Poland. Located in the southern Polish town of Dabrowa Górnicza near Katowice and operating under the name ThyssenKrupp Stal Serwis Polska, the centre will produce 125,000 tons of hot- and cold-rolled coil and coated slit strip per year for customers in Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Belarus, Hungary, and Ukraine.

The new service centre reflects the strategic importance of Eastern Europe to TK Steel as a targeted region for expansion. “In Poland and its southern neighbors alone, demand for processed steel products in 2005 was 2.2’million tons per year,” said Dr. Jost A. Massenberg, member of the executive board of ThyssenKrupp Steel, at the opening ceremony at the end of May. “This is expected to rise to 3.7 million tons by 2010. That’s a growth rate of more than 11%.”

The car producers, automotive suppliers, stamping plants, and appliance manufacturers and suppliers of Eastern European place high demands on the surface quality and dimensional accuracy of processed steel products. Up till now, ThyssenKrupp Stahl-Service-Centre has supplied around 120 customers in the region from its German sites. The Polish steel service centre in will bring the company closer to its customers and ensure faster service.

The centrepiece of the new facility is a slitting line to process flat-rolled steel from TK Steel production into slit strip. This line can process coils weighing up to 30 tons and strips 0.4 to 4.0 mm thick.

The centre is located under the roof of a 75,000-m² service and logistics complex owned by the ThyssenKrupp Group and housing the companies ThyssenKrupp Energostal, a Polish subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp Services, and ThyssenKrupp Stainless Poland, as well as ThyssenKrupp Stal Serwis Polska. Close cooperation among these group businesses will create synergies and opportunities to share know-how.