SSAB inaugurates Plate Center in China

SSAB inaugurates Plate Center in China

Today SSAB inaugurated a new plate center for warehouse and wear parts
processing in China, the first for SSAB in the Asia-Pacific region.
Approximately 100 million RMB was invested in the new Kunshan Plate Center. It
occupies an area of 50,000 sq.m. in all and can store over 20,000 tonnes of
steel plate. It is a state-of-the-art advanced wear parts processing center.

SSAB held a grand ceremony for the inauguration of SSAB Swedish Steel (China)
Co., Ltd in Kunshan. Mr. Zhang Guohua, Secretary of the Kunshan Municipal
Committee of the CCP, Mr Lars Andreasson, Consul at the Swedish
Consulate-General in Shanghai and Mr Olof Faxander, President and CEO of SSAB
Swedish Steel Group, presided over the inauguration and ribbon-cutting ceremony.


Mr Olof Faxander said in his address at the ceremony, “With the fast development
of the Chinese economy, there has been rapid growth in demand for our products.
The investment in a new Plate Center in China shows our commitment to this
market. Meanwhile, this is also one of the important steps for SSAB Swedish
Steel Group's global expansion strategy.” 

Mr Lars Andreasson said, “Kunshan has attracted investment in plant construction
by many Swedish companies because of its favorable conditions for investment and
amazing rate of development. SSAB, which is a world leader in quenched and
tempered steel plate, is setting up in Kunshan and bringing with it new,
advanced technology. It is bound to make a contribution in the joint promotion
of industrial and economic development.” 

The new Plate Center is located in the Kunshan New & Hi-Tech Industrial
Development Zone. It will be operated by SSAB's Heavy Plate Division, which is
based in the Swedish town of Oxelösund. The Plate Center occupies a total of
50,000 sq. m., of which 35,000 sq. m. comprises a stockyard. It holds
approximately 20,000 tonnes of steel plate, which is close to the capacity at
the central stockyard in Oxelösund. 

SSAB's expansion plan is under way in order to meet increasing demand on all
markets throughout the world and, in due course, ever increasing volumes of
abrasion-resistant steel plate and high-strength steel plate will be shipped to
the warehouse in Kunshan, thereby meeting the demand, which is increasing daily,
from customers in industries such as engineering machinery, cement, mining,
harbors and transport in China and other countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
Benefiting from this new Plate Center, Chinese customers will obtain better
delivery times and be able to further reduce the volume of stock carried in
their day-to-day business. 

Mr Olof Faxander said, “The establishment of the new Plate Center is aimed at
providing Chinese customers who do not possess processing capability with a
streamlined component processing service at a reasonable price and first-class
quality and eliminating the inconvenience of looking for a third-party to
produce wear parts.”

The new Kunshan Plate Center is a state-of-the-art advanced wear parts
processing center. It has high-precision, Messer numerically-controlled plasma
cutters and oxygen fuel flame cutting machines and can produce wear parts with a
wide range of thicknesses. Since Submerged Cutting technology is employed, the
heat affected zone is narrower, the loss of hardness for the whole component can
be effectively prevented and the distortion of the cut part can be reduced.
Moreover, in accordance with SSAB Oxelösund's environmental protection policy,
the Center is also equipped with a special dust elimination system which can
effectively remove smoke and dust during processing.

Mr Zhang Guohua and Mr Olof Faxander jointly started the cutting machines. All
the guests of honor present witnessed the arrival in China of the first wear
parts from SSAB Oxelösund.


Your news contact:
Miss Meilly Yang
SSAB Swedish Steel Ltd
Rm1002, B Building, Far East International Plaza,
317 Xianxia Road, Changning District, Shanghai
Postcode: 200051
Telephone: 021-62350065, ext. 19
Fax: 021-62754161
E-mail: meilly.yang@ssabox.com
www.ssabox.com
www.hardox.com.cn
www.weldox.com.cn

SSAB Svenskt Stål AB (Swedish Steel publ.) focuses on high-strength steels. We
are working towards global leadership in value added steel.

The SSAB Group comprises three major divisions: the Strip Division, the Plate
Division and the IPSCO Division, as well as the subsidiaries, Plannja and
Tibnor. SSAB has subsidiaries or offices in more than 40 countries and sales
throughout the world.

www.ssab.com