EuroWire November 2015

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Corporate

Open day for worldwide guests ▲ ▲ Guests at the Friedrich Kocks open day

in China, is the drive concept where every roll has its own motor. In addition, the computer-aided pass and guide adjustment system CAPAS was shown together with a detailed demonstration of its calibration and operation. This system guarantees the absolute correctness of the adjustment of the rolls in the stand allowing the operator to obtain the first bar in tolerance. of thermo-mechanical rolling with water boxes was presented to show the water cooling line automation. The delegates could also see the KMS-Kocks Microstructure Simulation software in operation, predicting and visualising the temperature distribution along the mill line with resulting microstructure and mechanical properties. This cooling line technology is currently applied in two customers’ sites in Taiwan and China. Friedrich Kocks GmbH & Co KG – Germany Website : www.kocks.de Finally, an online simulation acquisitions (one per cent). Adjusted for these effects, operating sales in the first six months of 2015 were down by one per cent, and therefore slightly below the strong previous year’s level. “Demand momentum in our markets did not live up to our expectations in the first half of 2015,” said Dr Matthias L Wolfgruber, chief executive. “However, Altana is very well positioned for further profitable organic growth.” Altana AG – Germany Website : www.altana.com

Friedrich Kocks organised an open day to present to the industry some of its main products at the manufacturing facilities in Bremen, Germany. More than 50 delegates from some of the most renowned companies in the world made the event a great success. For the first time the latest milestone in reducing and sizing technology for SBQ products, the newly developed RSB SCS® and its newly developed dynamic modular drive concept, were shown in workshop assembly. The delegates could also visualise the difference compared to the well-known C-Module design, as an assembled RSB® of that type could be seen at the same time. Both machines were consequently shipped to their respective customers’ sites in China and Turkey after the event. Further highlights of the event were two three-roll stands for SBQ production: one with a nominal roll diameter of 370mm and one of 500mm for the so far largest RSB® that Kocks has ever made. A special feature of this 500mm heavy-duty block, which is in the process of being installed The speciality chemicals group Altana increased sales by nine per cent to €1,070 million in the first half of 2015 (previous year: €985 million). At €210 million, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) almost reached the high level of the previous year (€212 million). At 19.6 per cent, the EBITDA margin was below the previous year’s margin (21.5 per cent), remaining, however, at a high level. The company’s sales growth mainly resulted from positive exchange rate effects (eight per cent), but also from

Rise in sales in first half of 2015

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November 2015