- SGL Group acquires 51 percent share of the rotor blade manufacturer
Abeking & Rasmussen Rotec GmbH & Co KG
- Further expansion of the carbon fiber and composites value
chain through forward integration
- Leading market position as an independent rotor blade manufacturer
Wiesbaden/Lemwerder, August 6, 2008. SGL Group - The Carbon Company - announced today its acquisition of a 51-percent majority share of Abeking & Rasmussen Rotec GmbH & Co KG, one of the leading independent manufacturers of rotor blades for wind turbines. The SGL Group will assume managerial responsibility of this joint venture. The purchase price is kept confidential under a non-disclosure agreement between both parties. With 300 employees at its Lemwerder site near Bremen A&R Rotec expects a turnover of approximately
€50 million in 2008.
The joint venture will operate under the name “SGL Rotec GmbH & Co KG” and will be based in Lemwerder. The target is to position SGL Rotec as a leading rotor blade manufacturer with “best-in-class” manufacturing know-how and to expand into wind energy markets like China, India, Turkey, and North America by establishing local production sites. The transaction is still subject to the approval of the German antitrust authorities.
Hariolf Kottmann, Member of the Board of Management and responsible for the Business Area Advanced Materials: “With this acquisition, SGL Group strengthens its market position as the sole European integrated carbon fiber and composites manufacturer in the dynamically growing wind energy sector. This forward integration into rotor blade manufacture is therefore a logical and important step in our carbon fiber and composites growth strategy. It enables us to cover the complete value chain and to offer end-to-end services to customers as a reliable partner in the wind energy sector.”
As an independent supplier, SGL Rotec will manufacture rotor blades in close cooperation with customers and exclusively based on their “build-to-print” design requirements, a strategy that is being supported by major customers in the wind energy sector. The forward integration into blade manufacturing complements SGL Group's activities in the Carbon Fibers & Composites (CFC) Business Unit, covering now the entire value chain related to the wind energy sector, which includes precursor and carbon fiber production, followed by fabrics, preforms and prepregs, as well as rotor blade components and finished rotor blades. Customers of SGL in the wind energy sector will have a sustainable supply security, one of the key success factor in this industry.
Abeking & Rasmussen Rotec specializes in manufacturing of high-grade rotor blades. The company has long-term supply agreements with a number of leading wind turbine manufacturers. It has a stake in Powerblades GmbH, a joint venture with REpower Systems AG for developing off-shore rotor blades with lengths over 60m. Rotec also maintains a close business relationship with SGL Kümpers, another supplier to the wind industry. Already today, SGL Group is delivering carbon fiber based key materials along the entire value chain for rotor blade manufacturing. The combination of SGL Group’s existing material know-how with Abeking & Rasmussen Rotec’s manufacturing competencies will facilitate further material development and to optimize and automate the current labor-intensive rotor blade production. SGL Group will contribute its expertise in automated production of composite components for automotive applications (Benteler SGL) and in the aviation industry (HITCO).
The global efforts to reduce CO2 emissions and to lower the dependency on gas and oil, the wind energy sector is in a dynamic growth phase. Wind energy is already cost competitive and is therefore regarded as one of the most important alternative energy sources. The installed global capacity is expected to triple from 94 GW in 2007 to 288 GW in 2012, with Europe showing the highest growth in absolute terms. Americas and Asia start from a lower base but the growth rates are expected to exceed 30% p.a. (Source: BTM Consult). Off-shore wind plants will increasingly contribute to this growth.
The wind energy industry is already the largest single consumer of materials based on industrial carbon fibers. SGL Group has already positioned itself as a leading materials supplier to this sector and strengthened its portfolio as the only integrated European carbon fiber and composites manufacturer through strategic acquisitions of epo and Kümpers. SGL Group is planning to triple its carbon fiber production capacity up to 12,000 tons p.a. by the year 2012, to take advantage of the growing substitution of basic materials. SGL’s carbon fiber production capacity will be 6,000 tons p.a. by the beginning of 2009.
Abeking & Rasmussen Rotec is one of Europe's leading independent manufacturers of rotor blades for wind turbines. The company is a subsidiary of the Abeking & Rasmussen Schiffs- und Jachtwerft GmbH & Co. KG shipyard and has a long tradition in the manufacture of rotor blades. It was the first manufacturer using carbon fibers in series production of rotor blades. In 2007, A&R Rotec generated sales of €32 million and expects for 2008 total sales of approximately €50 million. The company currently has 300 employees in Lemwerder and holds a 49 % stake in Powerblades GmbH in Bremerhaven, a joint venture with REpower Systems AG for the offshore rotor blades manufacturing.
Since it was founded in 1993, A&R Rotec has been a quality and technology leader in the rotor blades production based on fiber-reinforced plastics. Its customers include some of the world's leading wind turbine manufacturers.The Lemwerder site (near Bremen) benefits from excellent infrastructure, including access to a harbor on the river Weser. Rotor blades for wind turbines have been manufactured here since the 1980s.
The SGL Group is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of carbon-based products. It has a comprehensive portfolio ranging from carbon and graphite products to carbon fibers and composites. SGL Group’s core competencies are its expertise in high-temperature technology as well as its applications and engineering know-how gained over many years. These competencies enable the Company to make full use of its broad material base. SGL Group’s carbon-based materials combine several unique properties such as electrical and thermal conductivity, heat and corrosion resistance as well as high mechanical strength combined with low weight. Due to the paradigm shift in the use of materials as a result of the worldwide shortage of energy and raw materials, there is a growing demand for SGL Group’s high-performance materials and products from an increasing number of industries. Carbon and graphite products are used whenever other materials such as steel, aluminum, copper, plastics, wood etc. fail due to their limited properties. Products from the SGL Group are used predominantly in the steel, aluminum, automotive, chemical and glass/ceramics industries. However, manufacturers in the semiconductor, battery, solar/wind energy, environmental protection, aerospace and defense industries as well as in the nuclear energy industry also figure among the Company’s customers.
With 38 production sites in Europe, North America and Asia as well as a service network covering more than 100 countries, the SGL Group is a company with a global presence. In 2007, the Company’s workforce of around 5,900 generated sales of € 1.4 billion. The Company’s head office is located in Wiesbaden/Germany.
This press release contains statements on future developments that are based on currently available information and that involve risks and uncertainties that could lead to actual results deviating from these forward-looking statements. The statements on future developments are not to be understood as guarantees. The future developments and events are dependent on a number of factors, they include various risks and unanticipated circumstances and are based on assumptions that may not be correct. These risks and uncertainties include, for example, unforeseeable changes in political, economic and business conditions, particularly in the area of electrosteel production, the competitive situation, interest rate and currency developments, technological developments and other risks and unanticipated circumstances. We see other risks in price developments, unexpected developments relating to acquired and consolidated companies and in the ongoing cost optimization programs. SGL Group does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.
