Press

Move to its own assembly site strengthens the market position of OTTO JUNKER Metallurgical Equipment (Shanghai) Ltd. (JMS) in China and abroad.

On September 24, 2013, Markus D. Werner signed the long-term lease agreement in the presence of OTTO JUNKER's supervisory board chairmen, under the approving eyes of officials from the Changshu district government who had supported the project throughout.OTTO JUNKER Metallurgical Equipment (Shanghai) Ltd. (JMS) was welcomed cordially by district and municipal representatives, who had also been consistently helpful in seeing to the completion of the necessary formalities.

The city of Changshu borders on the city limits of Shanghai in a north-easterly direction and can boast very good infrastructure links in terms of motorways and railway lines.The newly leased factory premises lie squarely in a modern, continuously growing industrial zone populated by international companies.Good transport routes to and from the site, as well as local access to an extensive supplier and subcontractor base, are thus ensured.Moreover, the city of Changshu offers education and training facilities and an attractive living environment to the personnel employed here.The assembly shop building has 8500 sq.m. of floorspace and comes with a 1300 sq.m. office level for administrative requirements, thus providing excellent long-term strategic prospects for OTTO JUNKER Metallurgical Equipment (Shanghai) Ltd. (JMS).

As part of this strategy the new site will support a further continuous rise in what is already an ambitious quality control effort and a high level of product quality.Moreover, OTTO JUNKER Metallurgical Equipment (Shanghai) Ltd. (JMS) will be able to boost the quality and extent of its assembly services and technical after-sales support through the use of its own personnel.

OTTO JUNKER GmbH is looking forward with confidence and optimism to the company's future development.

In June 2012, the Otto Junker Foundation, owners of Otto Junker GmbH, appointed Dr. Stefan Miskiewicz (President), Dr. Torsten Bahke and Udo vom Berg new members of the Board of Trustees. Dr. Ambros Schindler was appointed a member of the Foundation's Executive Board and of the Supervisory Board of Otto Junker GmbH.

Otto Junker GmbH, global technological leaders in the field of induction melting furnaces and thermoprocessing plants, have restructured their Managing Board in the course of their strategic orientation. In its yesterday's meeting, the Supervisory Board appointed Mr. Markus D. Werner, former company CFO, Chairman of the Managing Board with immediate effect. Mr. Frank Donsbach (47),

Mr. Atilla Somuncu (52) and Dr. Elmar Westhoff (45) were appointed new members of the Managing Board. They head the induction melting equipment, thermoprocessing plant and high-grade steel foundry divisions as COOs.

Mr. Markus D. Werner, new Chairman of the Managing Board, states: „The reorganization shall further strengthen the company's value-oriented growth strategy. I appreciate the trust shown in me and my colleagues by the Executive Board and the Supervisory Board. We are now facing the exciting challenge of further strengthening our market position and technological leadership, filling our highly-motivated employees with enthusiasm for our targets and pushing forward the internationalization.“

Mr. Markus D. Werner supersedes Dr. Hans Rinnhofer at the head of the company. Dr. Rinnhofer took over as Chairman of the Managing Board in August 2008 and was in charge of the restructuring of the company as a consequence of the worldwide financial crisis. The Executive Board and the Supervisory Board of Otto Junker GmbH wish to thank him for his work and for the good cooperation. Mr. Heinz Keweritsch (President of the Supervisory Board): "We are greatly indebted to Dr. Rinnhofer".

Innovative annealing furnaces for the aluminium industry

New equipment technology makes operations more eco-friendly

The German Federal Ministry of Environment is making available 1.5 million Euro from its Environmental Innovation Programme for a pilot project currently under implementation at Aluminium Norf GmbH in Neuss (North Rhine-Westphalia). The company produces sheet and strip from aluminium stock. Advanced annealing furnaces will make it possible to work in a much more energy-efficient manner and save approx. 8,300 tonnes p.a. of CO₂ emissions compared to prior practices with previous equipment.

Aluminium Norf intends to employ innovative, energy-efficient annealing furnaces embodying the most advanced equipment technology in its cold-rolling lines. The use of an on-line process control system will enable the company to save huge amounts of energy in its annealing operation by feeding the strip at its "as-rolled" temperature instead of cold. So far, the annealing furnaces used to be controlled on the basis of trials and metallurgical experience, which called for a defined furnace temperature and for cold strip at the beginning of the annealing cycle. This meant that the strip had to be cooled down first after the upstream rolling step, resulting in the loss of valuable residual heat. With the new system, temperature measurements carried out both on the strip and inside the furnace permit the computer-controlled determination of a real-time thermal balance. This enables the heat input into the annealing furnaces to be reduced to exactly what is needed.

Based on an annual output of 180,000 tonnes of product, the project will save 4,857,705 kWh of electrical power and 9,804,600 kWh of natural gas compared to the previous equipment.

For further information on the subsidy programme and the project detailed above, visit:

www.bmu.de/foerderprogramme/pilotprojekte_inland/doc/46977.php