Athader continues to increase its competitiveness in coil processing line sector

Thursday, 06 November 2014 12:14:52 (GMT+3)   |   Istanbul
       

Could you please describe your company and its specialization?

Athader is a Spanish engineering and manufacturing company headquartered in San Sebastian in one of the most highly industrialized areas of Spain. It is considered to be one of the largest European suppliers of coil processing lines, mainly slitting and cut-to-length lines, but also including packaging lines, combined cutting lines as well as multi-blanking lines.

How would you describe your own role in the company?

I am the managing director of Athader. 60 percent of my time is taken up with concluding new contacts, keeping up with trends and looking for new business opportunities, while the remaining 40 percent of my time is dedicated to engineering and finance issues.

What are general characteristics and application of the machine lines offered by Athader?

As I said, we specialize in slitting and cut-to-length lines. The slitting lines are designed to obtain slit coils from an entry mother coil with high quality slit strips and edges.

Concerning the cut-to-length lines, they are designed to produce sheets by cutting an entry coil in cross sections, forming perfect flat sheets which are then stacked. Our lines are mainly destined for service centers, steelmakers, as well as end-users like the automotive industry, the roll-forming sector, steel frame makers, as well as stainless steel and aluminum producers. Our most important customers, among others, are Acerinox, ArcelorMittal, Gonvarri, RosCasares, Aperam, Thyssen Group and Ternium.

Who are your main suppliers of steel and equipment parts?

Concerning steel suppliers, we are accustomed to work with European steel suppliers like ArcelorMittal  which  supply  high  quality  steel  to enable  us  to  produce  our machinery with solid steel frames and with excellent properties of shafts and parts.

With respect to commercial components, we always include the best European brands, which speeds up the process of replacing machine parts and allows us to meet tight deadlines and assure the quality of our products.

Please, tell us about your target markets and about the most notable projects you have already realized in these markets? What is the situation regarding demand in your target markets?

Our target markets are North and South America, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

Evidently, we are more present in some markets than in others, for example in the South American and European markets where we have been operating for 22 years. In these last four years, Athader has signed contracts for the supply of five cut-to length lines and two slitting lines to Mexico, two slitting lines to Argentina, four cut-to-length and two slitting lines in Europe. In addition, we have some other projects underway.

In 2012, Athader became a member of the Bradbury Group, a world-class manufacturer of roll-forming, coil processing, and levelling systems, and, thanks to our extensive sales and service network, nowadays we are considered to be one of the best European suppliers of slitting and cut-to-length lines for the North American and Asian Markets. We have realized projects in Chicago in the US and in St Petersburg in Russia. Besides, we are working on projects for some important steel producers in India, Russia and the US.

Concerning markets in the Middle East and North Africa, we are receiving inquiries from some good customers thanks to a big project undertaken by Athader for the supply of two cut-to-length lines and one slitting line for one of the most important service centers and tube producers in Saudi Arabia.

What are the main challenges in the global steel market nowadays?

One of the advantages of being a member of Bradbury Group is the ability to avail of the different technologies of the group, to be able to offer installations with sophisticated design and to guarantee a successful commissioning at site. An additional advantage, on the other hand, is to be able to cover all markets in the world and to serve our customers with a technical support service with quick response times via the worldwide sales network of the group.

Athader has been focusing its research on improving its business and technology to stay competitive in the markets for coil processing lines and to continuously look for ways to enhance our current design in order to satisfy the industry's ever-changing demands and customer requirements, providing tailor-made machines for turnkey projects with the aim of meeting with customer's needs.