We are expanding in Poland

Following a year of construction, on June 12 our Polish subsidiary voestalpine Rotec Sp. z o.o. in Środa Śląska officially opened a new production hall. The additional 4,000 m² of production space will be used to manufacture around 5 million passenger car shock absorber tubes per year for a South Korean automotive supplier as well as provide space for additional tube processing equipment.

Challenges mastered

Dawid S., the site project manager, is satisfied with the successful implementation of this expansion project: “Our customer, a TIER 1 supplier to the automotive industry, will soon start receiving a lorry load of shock absorber tubes every day. That was the reason we needed additional space to expand our production capacities. More storage space was also required for the finished products and the prematerials. The new production hall meets all these requirements satisfactorily.”

Experienced employees previously working in other areas at the site have now been assigned to the two new production lines. Their former duties in production, maintenance, and logistics will be taken over by newly hired employees.

Expansion of our Polish Rotec company in figures:

2 new, fully automated state-of-the art production lines, each 27 m in length
11 tube processing steps on each line
4,000 m² of additional production space
up to 5 million shock absorber tubes a year
1 year of construction

Close cooperation within voestalpine

An important contributing factor for the success of the expansion project was the close cooperation within the Rotec Group. As Dawid S. says:

It was only possible to realize this expansion thanks to the dedication of our team here in Środa Śląska, and the process and technological capabilities of our colleagues at the German Rotec Engineering Center in Annweiler. This is true for both the transfer of production know-how as well as the design and construction of the production facilities.

The lines were completed with an investment in robotic loading and unloading stations, an important step towards achieving further automation at the site.

Future proofed

In view of the steadily increasing size of voestalpine Rotec Sp. z o.o. and its future growth plans, the company’s management has also been expanded to two managing directors. Philip R., who has managed the site for the past 22 years, will continue his function as the Chief Technical Officer, while Bartosz B. will join him on the board in the role of Chief Commercial Officer. The opening of the new production area provides our site in Środa Śląska with the ideal basis for expanding its local business activities. By drawing on its own technical expertise and cooperating closely with local technology suppliers and the Rotec Engineering Center in Germany, in future the Polish subsidiary will focus even more strongly on manufacturing particularly challenging value-added components.

And lastly, construction of the new production hall was also undertaken with a view to sustainable production: The photovoltaic installation on the roof of the new hall will cover around 10% of the site’s energy requirements. This is another step towards carbon-neutral production by 2035, the goal of the Metal Forming Division to which the site belongs. More information at: www.voestalpine.com/co2untdowntozero.