According to a company statement, by 2014 Italian flat steel and steel pipe leader Marcegaglia will invest €1 billion in projects aimed at expanding both its local and worldwide business.
Marcegaglia has lately commissioned a new plant located at Kluczbork, Poland, for the production of welded pipes and the processing of strips and plates, with a capacity of 300,000 metric tons per year. Meanwhile, the company has opened a new service center for flats and pipes located at Vladimir, Russia (180 km from Moscow) and has commissioned a plant for the production of ERW precision pipes in Guangling, China.
Antonio Marcegaglia, CEO of Marcegaglia, commented, "In 2012 the company's annual capacity will increase to 7.5 million metric tons, compared to 5 million metric tons in 2010, while sales revenues will more than double to €5.5 billion". Asked whether the company's investments would simply worsen the overcapacity situation in the global market as they had been planned prior the crisis, Mr. Marcegaglia said: "I don't believe this will occur. We have decided to continue our program beacuse the investments involve emerging countries and also because we think that in Europe there are good opportunities for high value-added steel products, which are sold mainly to Asian countries."