Cronimet Group: the next step towards the decarbonisation of stainless steel production

Cronimet Group, a world leader in the stainless steel recycling market, and Outokumpu, one of the world's leading suppliers of sustainable stainless steel, are strengthening their strategic partnership. The Finnish stainless steel producer will thus acquire a 10% share in Cronimet North-East GmbH, which as an intermediary holding company has both direct and indirect shares in the Cronimet Group companies in North-Eastern Europe.

Outokumpu and the Cronimet Group are working together to optimise the raw material cycle: regionally processed scrap for the production and consumption of stainless steel in Europe.

"This partnership is a further step towards achieving our sustainability goals, which include a lower carbon footprint in stainless steel production thanks to the use of regional scrap and shorter transportation routes to Outokumpu's stainless steel plants," explains Jürgen Pilarsky, CEO of Cronimet Holding GmbH.

In addition to supplying Outokumpu's European stainless steel plants with stainless steel scrap from Cronimet's plants in North-Eastern Europe, both companies have also agreed to cooperate in innovation and research as part of this partnership. They plan to develop technologies together that will contribute to the decarbonisation of the stainless steel industry. Both companies will also work to reduce costs through better planning on both sides and reduce waste along the supply chain.

"We are very excited about the partnership with the Cronimet Group because we share a commitment to regional development, namely to accelerate the transformation to a circular economy in the North-Eastern Europe region, while focusing on sustainability and reducing CO2 emissions for stainless steel transport and production," adds Marc-Simon Schaar, Purchasing Director at Outokumpu.

As a shareholder, Outokumpu will act as a strategic partner of the Cronimet Group in North-Eeaster Europe, thus deepening the existing successful cooperation. The Cronimet Group will keep full operational control over the companies owning shares in Cronimet North-East GmbH. There are no plans to increase the shares in Cronimet North-East or to acquire shares in other Cronimet Group companies.

The execution of the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and approvals by the Competition Authorities.

The Cronimet Holding Group, based in Karlsruhe, is one of the world's leading specialists in stainless steel scrap, ferroalloys and primary metals. The company has a strong focus on recycling and processing of scrap metal, which brings it back into the raw material cycle and thus contributes to its efficient use. The company has been supplying materials to the steel industry for more than forty years. The Cronimet Holding Group was founded in 1980 and currently employs over 1,500 people in approximately 60 branches worldwide.

Ostrava branch and its investments

The Czech branch of the CRONIMET Group is located in Ostrava. Through this plant 27.000 tonnes of stainless steel scrap were returned to the raw material cycle last year, whereby the company significantly contributes to the development of a sustainable circular economy. "Not only the investments made, but also the planned investments for 2024-2025 such as the expansion of storage capacities, the production hall or new technologies for the processing of stainless steel scrap will help us not only to increase productivity, improve the working environment for our employees, optimize work processes, but especially to achieve our commitment to contribute to a lower carbon footprint in the production of stainless steel," Lucie Milatová, Managing Director of CRONIMET Ostrava, s.r.o., informed us about the plans and direction of the Czech branch.

Source: Focus Nerez 06/2023