EoW March 2010

corporatenews

New shareholder in Italian WWM

Maschinenfabrik Niehoff and Dr Rainer Menge, the industry’s annealing specialist, have emerged as the sole owners of Niehoff Bühler GmbH NBM. Founded as a joint venture in 2002 between Niehoff, Dr Menge, and the rolling mill manufacturer Bühler & Co, NBM launched its production of advanced annealer technology. In 2008 Bühler became insolvent and sought to sell its stake in NBM, resulting in the final sale and transfer of its shares to the two other founding partners. Dr Menge, who headed the NBM joint venture, has been appointed managing director of NBM which is now headquartered at the main Niehoff facility in Schwabach, Germany, where the NBM annealers are built and tested. NBM specialises in the development and manufacture of Niehoff’s RI type continuous inductive annealers for the wire industry. The annealers come in a range of sizes and have been successfully used by wire makers throughout the industry for a number of years. Niehoff and Dr Menge acquire all shares in NBM

Supplier of wiredrawing machines for the steel wire industry, Ernst Koch GmbH & Co KG now holds a 49% share in Italian manufacturer, Welding Wire Machineries Srl (WWM). WWM supplies producers of welding wires around the world and, in the past, Koch has implemented many joint projects with the company. Koch expects its shareholding in WWM to result in even better cooperation in terms of the development of new welding wire machines and equipment, as well as in obtaining greater expertise in the production of welding electrodes and flux-cored welding wire. According to executive director Jochen Koch, WWM could also partner with his long-established company when it comes to equipment that complements the drawing machines. “Working with WWM allows us to enter the Italian market directly. This will facilitate both the distribution of our own machines and the commercialisation of our joint projects while we will also benefit from the possibility to purchase additional components and equipment,“ explained executive director Thomas Voss. Ernst Koch GmbH & Co KG – Germany Fax : +49 2372 985 167 Email : sales@koch-ihmert.de Website : www.koch-ihmert.com

NBM GmbH – Germany Fax : +49 9122 977 155 Email : info@niehoff.de Website : www.niehoff.de

15

EuroWire – March 2010