A steel strip that would reach around the equator

Gestamp and Salzgitter Flachstahl in praise of their long-standing customer-supplier relationship

The relationship between Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH and Gestamp Umformtechnik is certainly long-standing: Steel from Salzgitter has been shipped to the company in Bielefeld-Brackwede since 1950: The total volume since then amounts to around a million tonnes, and finds use in manufacturing vehicle chassis and body components.

Dr. Sebastian Bross, Vice Chairman of the Management Board of Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH (SZFG), paid tribute at a special ceremony: “Gestamp and Salzgitter are linked by a long business relationship founded on trust, a relationship which has grown strongly in the past ten years in particular, as a result of which Gestamp is one of our most important customers in the automobile component supply sector.”
SZFG Management Board Chairman Ulrich Grethe, graphically described a million tonnes of steel: The equivalent of a rolled steel strip that reaches around the Earth’s equator. Thinking back to the trailing arm for the MQB platform, one of the first SZBS800 grade steel components, he continued: “Together we have developed both the volume of material and the portfolio.”

Thomas Dudziak, Supplier Management manager at Gestamp Umformtechnik, replied: “It is important that our employees at Gestamp have had the chance to watch production in Salzgitter first hand, so they understand how complex it is to produce steel. Equally, it is just as important that Salzgitter employees are familiar with our production. This encourages mutual understanding.”