Danieli
 | |
| Public | |
| Industry | Metal, Manufacturing |
| Founded | 1914 |
| Headquarters | Buttrio, Italy |
Key people |
Gianpietro Benedetti (CEO) Carla de Colle (Vice Chairman) Franco Alzetta (COO) |
| Products | Equipment, Plants |
| Revenue | €2,456 billion (2007) |
Number of employees | 6,816 (2007) |
| Website |
danieli |
Danieli (Italian pronunciation: [danˈjɛːli]) ranks among three largest suppliers of equipment and plants to the metal industry in the world. The company has seven factories in Italy, Germany, France, Sweden, Thailand, China and India.
The headquarters is in Buttrio, in the north-east of Italy.
History
1914
Danieli’s origins date to 1914 when two brothers, Mario and Timo Danieli, founded the Angelini Steelworks in Brescia, Italy. This was one of the first Italian companies to use Electric Arc Furnaces in steelmaking.
1929
Part of the Angelini Steelworks was transferred to Buttrio, Italy. In those days the Company manufactured tools for forging plants and auxiliary machines for rolling mills.
1955
Luigi Danieli took over the family business which, at that time employed 50 people, and started designing and manufacturing equipment for the steel industry. Mr. Danieli’s idea was to manufacture more competitive equipment, simplify layouts and maximize the use of automation. One of the concepts developed, namely the "EAF - conticaster - rolling mill" production route, has characterized and contributed to the successful development of the minimill process that is widely adopted today.
1981-1985
Numerous plants were supplied by Danieli on a turnkey basis in the USA, the Far East, the former Soviet Union and North Africa, considerably increasing the Group's turnover. The large-scale investments made in research enabled the company to achieve a leading position worldwide in plants for commercial long products.
1986-1990
The first direct casting-rolling plant for long products was built in Italy. In the USA, Danieli conquered 80% of the market for long product plants. Morgårdshammar in Sweden was acquired. That company, founded in 1856, had been world leader in the supply of rolling mills for long products in special steels. Centro Met in Sweden was founded as a specialized team in steel melting and refining processes for quality steel production. The orders from major steel producers like Krupp, Cogne, Ovako, Teledyne, and Uddeholm made Danieli an international leader in specialty steels. Furthermore, an industrial-scale prototype of the Thin Slab Caster was created for research purposes. Group turnover, which in 1980 was 67 M Euro, increased to 396 M Euro; employees reached 1,870 people.
1991-1995
Mrs. Cecilia Danieli was appointed Chairman of the Board and Mr. Gianpietro Benedetti was appointed President and CEO. A strategic decision was made to expand into the flat product sector which, at that time, was dominated by German, English and Japanese plant manufacturers. Danieli acquired Wean Industries and United Engineering in the USA, founded in 1929 and 1901 respectively, which, between 1950 and 1980, designed and manufactured 60% of the plants for the production of flat products worldwide. The value and importance of Danieli’s technology in the flat product sector was recognized right from the beginning, and this led to a long series of significant orders like: the Thin Slab Caster revamp at Nucor Hickman; the Hot Strip Mill at North Star-BHP Steel; the Thin Slab Caster and HSM at Algoma Steel, the first in the world to produce a wide range of quality steels, including peritectic. World leading companies Sund Birsta - finishing and tying services for long products, Sweden, and Rotelec - electromagnetic stirrers for casters, France, were acquired. The world’s second unique "direct casting-rolling" plant for quality steels was commissioned at Republic Engineered Steels in the USA. Kia Steel, Korea, ordered an automatic conditioning plant for specialty engineering steels. Danieli becomes shareholder of ABS - an Italian specialty steelmaking company.
1996-2000
Cold Strip Mills also were supplied to Nucor Hickman and Usinor, Sidmar, and Strip Processing Lines to Worthington Steel, US Steel, Galvak, Hoogovens, Sidmar (now Arcelor) and Stahlwerke Bremen. Thin Slab Casters and Plate Mills were supplied to Nucor and IPSCO in the USA, resulting in a 30% market share in 1999. Danieli’s world leadership for long products in commercial and special steels was consolidated with an international market share of 65%. In 1997 a major research project for the first endless casting and rolling plant for long products was given the go-ahead, the results of which would be seen in the year 2000. In 1999 Danieli entered into a joint venture with Corus Technical Services to integrate its product lines with Blast Furnaces, converter meltshops and associated services. In the same year Danieli also acquired the patents of the "Arex" direct reduction process, an innovative technology that improves the efficiency of iron ore reduction, with lower production and depreciation costs. Josef Fröhling, a German company specialized in narrow cold strip rolling mills and finishing plants for stainless steels and non-ferrous metals, was acquired. On June 17, 1999, at the age of 56, Mrs. Cecilia Danieli died; her contribution to the development of the company was invaluable. Danieli acquired Davy Distington, UK, a company specialized in engineering and design of slab and bloom casters. In 2000 Danieli had a sales revenue of over 930 M Euro, with some 3,200 employees in Italy, Sweden, Germany, USA, UK and France. The most revolutionary endless castingrolling minimill for speciality steel long products was started up at ABS, Italy.
2001-2010
Mr. Gianpietro Benedetti was appointed Chairman and CEO of the Danieli Group. Danieli increased its market share in China with regard to flat products (e.g. Tangshan, Handan, Benxi, Tonghua, Anyang, Shaoguan) and started up several thin slab casting plants, setting the worldwide production record of 3.25 Mtpy with a 2-strand TSC at TISCO. Thanks to these successful start-ups Danieli definitively ranks among the leading suppliers of hot and cold rolling plants and processing lines for flat products. In 2004 Danieli entered the market for plants for seamless pipes and was awarded nine orders in four years.
In 2007 Danieli started the world’s largest bloom caster, producing round blooms up to 700 mm. Tokyo Steel (Japan) ordered the largest EAF in the world: 420 t liquid steel capacity. In 2007 MMK-Atakas (Turkey) ordered from Danieli a high-tech QSP to produce 2.4 Mtpy of hot coils, through a 250-t EAF and two Thin Slab Casters, including a cold complex and strip processing lines. Posco (Korea) placed an order to substitute two SMS Demag thin slab casters with a single strand Danieli high-speed TSC.
To complement the range of machinery and plants for the pipe industry Danieli acquired W+K IndustrieTechnik (Germany), a leader in the design and manufacturing of plants for longitudinal and spiral-welded pipe mills for pipe diameters up to 3.2 m. A high-tech thick slab caster for stainless steels is supplied to TKS AS Terni (Italy). Danieli expands its production capacity by establishing three new fully owned production centers in Thailand and China reaching a total manufacturing area of 316,000 sqm, employing 3500 more people. New engineering and design departments were also started up in India, Ukraine and Vietnam.
Danieli Automation consolidates its capabilities in the design of high-tech automation and process control systems also for flat product mills with the startup of the OMK (Russia) minimill, entirely equipped with DA automation process control and electrical equipment, from scrap to finished coils.
The award of four PSP section mills consolidates the leadership of Danieli Morgårdshammar also in this sector. The successful startup of two conticasters for beam blanks up to 600 mm contribute to the acquisition of several orders for similar plants in the same year. Additional orders are acquired for two 2-Mtpy DRI plants, totaling four units in the last two years. Mr. Franco Alzetta is appointed COO of engineering and steel plantmaking. The ABS steelmaking plant exceeds 1 Mtpy of special steel production.
In 2009 Danieli is awarded the first complete heavy structural mill for sections up to 1,000 mm in the Middle East by ESI (Abu Dhabi); for the same company the first 1.6-Mtpy Energiron DRI plant is started up reaching an actual production of up to 2 Mtpy. The first ever endless casting- rolling long product micromill is successfully started up in the USA. The new generation TSC caster scores up to 340 tph of thin slab at Posco, Korea.[1]