Sep 25 2008
Customers can now also be supplied with nickel alloy products from Guangzhou in southern China, where ThyssenKrupp VDM today opened a new service center. “This step will strengthen our presence in Asia and shorten supply routes to our customers,” said Dr. Jürgen Olbrich, Chairman of the Management Board of ThyssenKrupp VDM, at the official inauguration of the service center, which was also attended by government and business representatives from the Guangzhou region.
Dr. Olbrich said that benefits would also result from close cooperation with sister company ThyssenKrupp Stainless International, which has been operating a stainless steel service center with surface treatment, cut-to-length and slitting lines and a warehouse with processing equipment at the same site since 2005.
ThyssenKrupp VDM will offer a wide range of customer services from Guangzhou. “We want to establish new customer relationships in inland China for applications using nickel alloy sheet and bar,” said Dr. Olbrich. “A further advantage of the new service center is that we can make fast supplies of standard sizes and customized materials to the markets in Japan, Korea and Australia. ThyssenKrupp VDM Guangzhou Trading also sees itself as a competent partner to other Group companies, such as ThyssenKrupp Titanium, for warehousing and the brokering of business in the Asian market.”
ThyssenKrupp VDM has invested around 450,000 euros in setting up the new Chinese service center, whose operations will profit from collaboration with ThyssenKrupp Stainless International. Both ThyssenKrupp Stainless subsidiaries are using the same site, where ThyssenKrupp VDM has rented around 1,000 square meters of space in the ThyssenKrupp Stainless International warehouse. ThyssenKrupp VDM has recruited highly skilled Chinese employees. Additional support will be provided in the area of warehousing by staff from ThyssenKrupp Stainless International.
In addition to warehouse management, advising customers will be a key area of work for the new local employees. “Our aim is to strengthen existing customer relationships, but also to specifically address smaller users who are not being supplied by us at present,” explained Dr. Olbrich. “The warehouse and service center put us in a position to supply high-quality nickel alloys in the required sizes and also in smaller volumes.”