Hot rolled and drawn stainless bar producer Böllinghaus is investing in excess of €3m over the next three years to raise processing capacity and increase its output of non-commodity grades at its rolling mill at Vieira de Leiria, about 150km north of Lisbon, Portugal.

The investment includes a second annealing furnace to allow the production of more ferritic products, a second drawbench to increase output of cold drawn bar, and improvements to one of its two rolling mills.

Work is already in hand on the first two items, and Böllinghaus managing director Hartwig Härtel tells Steel Business Briefing that they plan to sign contracts for full automation of the works’ cross-country bar mill around mid-year, with completion a year later. The aim is to improve productivity and increase product size range. The other rolling mill is a continuous mill.

Böllinghaus produces hot rolled flat, square and hexagon bars, and drawn flat, square and hexagon bars, only at its mill in Portugal. All sales activities are based at its Remscheid headquarters east of Düsseldorf.

Apart from raising output and moving the product range away from commodity austenitics towards ferritics and martensitics, other reasons for the investment are that it will help the company to maintain its target of keeping delivery times down to 6-8 weeks, and also enable it to increase sales to end users. Currently distributors form the majority of Böllinghaus’s customer base.