Danieli

Company Profile

Established in 1914, Danieli & C. Officine Meccaniche S.p.A. designs, manufactures and installs machines and plants for the metal industry covering the entire production cycle, from ore to a wide range of finished steel products, both on turnkey and single unit supply basis. Danieli & C. is one of the three top manufacturers of plants and machines for the steel-making industry in the world. It is world leader in minimills and in facilities for the production of long products, and second in flat products. Among the three main metal plant makers in the world, Danieli & C. can boast the largest and most modern workshops in Italy, China, Germany, Austria, Thailand, India and Russia, honoring its motto "We do not shop around for noble equipment". The Danieli Group has also a steelmaking company - Acciaierie Bertoli Safau SpA (ABS) - that produces special steels for the automotive, heavy machinery, mechanical, energy and petroleum industries. ABS is number one in Italy and third in Europe in its sector. The Danieli Group main operating companies are located in Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, France, Spain, Russia, Turkey, India, Vietnam, Thailand, China, Japan, United States of America and Brazil.

1914 › 1960

Danieli history begins in 1914 in Brescia, where Timo Danieli and the Angelini family are shareholders in a steelmaking plant, anchored by the first electric furnace in Italy, developed by the American company Lectromelt. The social and economic turmoil of the post-war period force the steelmaking plant to close, prompting the entrepreneurs to move first to Milan to work in the tool machine sector (Timo Danieli and his brother Mario start over with Danieli Vaj) and then to Buttrio, Friuli in 1929. There, the family of Mario’s wife owned some land, and this became the first hub of the future group, which manufactures simple equipment for hand tools and farming, subsequently embarking on the manufacture of steelmaking machinery. In the 1950s, Mario’s son Luigi Danieli, while at Safau in Udine, outside of Danieli, after his work experience at OM in Brescia, and then with the Techint Group in Argentina, began to study steelmaking machines that could compete with machinery manufactured by the German firms that dominated that sector of the market.

During that time Luigi, began to take an interest in production and investments at Safau, and he discovers that there is a technological gap between Italy and the industries he visits in Europe, particularly in Austria and Germany. Luigi, however, is particularly struck by a visit he makes to the Morgårdshammar plant in Sweden, a highly innovative company and a foremost developer of technologies for rolling mills for long products in quality steels. On the strength of this experience, Luigi suggested that Safau should replace a cooling bed with a machine manufactured in-house, simpler and less costly than what the Germans were offering.

1960 › 1970

From steelmaking to steelmaking machines: Luigi Danieli’s idea became a “company” in 1958, when due to his father’s illness, he left Safau and dedicated himself completely to the family business. This decision coincided with the growth of the Italian economy in the 1950s, which with the development of infrastructure, schools and housing, led to a sharp increase in demand for rebar, a demand that is satisfied by the steelmakers of Brescia. Danieli managed to harness this trend by supplying small machines, such as rolling stands. These products soon appear in the catalogues of the major plant producers, namely Germans, Japanese and Americans, and are not a priority for them, and so can be supplied at high prices. And, so it is thanks to this boom that Danieli is able to grow.

1970 › 1980

The first minimill was installed in Germany and the first continuous casting plant was installed in Italy, for the Riva Group. The success of the minimill concept spread to Spain, the USA and the Far East.

The first large turnkey order was placed with Danieli for a complete steel mill in the former German Democratic Republic. Company turnover was 25 M Euro, and employment rises to 1700 people. Mrs. Cecilia Danieli, who had managed the financial and administrative departments of the Group since 1977, was appointed Managing Director, and Mr Gianpietro Benedetti, who had been Group Sales Director since 1977, was appointed Director of Engineering.

1980 › 2000

At the beginning of the 1980s, thanks to a healthy volume of new orders that we filled successfully, and to the satisfaction of the customers in Central America, Nigeria, Europe and the USA, and thanks also to some important turnkey plants in the Soviet Union (particularly those with Pirelli for the steel cord, and with Breda for heavyweight drill pipes used in oil exploration), the company was able to invest with a view to expanding the business. In 1976 Danieli’s sales amounted to 26 M Euro, with 1,489 people. These investments were primarily directed at buying companies that had been leaders in their respective sectors. Among the most important additions during that period were companies that possessed high technology and a sound reputation: the Swedish company Morgårdshammar, the American company Wean United; Centro Maskin, another Swedish company, followed by Sund (Sweden) and Rotelec (France).

So, basically, the company expanded by drawing together various independent firms around a common center. The entire operation was successful because Danieli was able to expand the product range and increase the presence in new markets. The remaining resources were invested in research.

Danieli continued to make acquisitions incorporating Fröhling and W+K in Germany, and more recently, Innoval (research center for the aluminum sector) and Lynxs (scrap processing) in the United Kingdom. In 1999 the company suffered a terrible loss, the premature passing of Mrs. Cecilia Danieli, a woman of tremendous strength and generosity who dedicated her life to the company.

2000 › 2015

In the middle of the 1990s Danieli committed itself to a new strategy: to be closer to its customers in growing markets while setting up workshops and engineering departments locally, to be more competitive in terms of costs and manufacturing skill. In 2004 the first workshop was built in China, in Beijing, DME (Danieli Metallurgical Equipment), followed by another one in Changshu (Shanghai), which today is equal in size to Buttrio workshop. At the same time the company also established Danieli Far East in Thailand, and in the past three years these were followed by Danieli India, Danieli Volga in Russia and the service centers in Austria and Brazil. The group repurposed the workshops of the German and Swedish acquisitions, using them to provide fast-track orders and service. To honor the company motto, “We do not shop around for noble equipment”, Danieli made sizeable investments in workshops. It is important to emphasize that the Danieli Group’s foreign subsidiaries not only manufacture plant equipment but also design products and manage job orders. They are actual workshops, complete with engineering offices, project managers, etc. For example, today the company has 1,550 engineers in India, Thailand, China and Vietnam, and is replicating the same model in Russia and Ukraine. To reach these goals the “Metamorphosis 1” project was established for the purpose of internationalizing and administering a multicultural company. The efforts dedicated to Metamorphosis 1, in addition to a significant economic commitment, required and continue to require that management assume a different operating mentality, though up to now results have been positive. Also during this period Danieli took advantage of the opportunity to acquire ABS (Acciaierie Bertoli Safau), the company (Safau) from which Luigi Danieli hired the first group of Danieli technicians back in 1958. ABS contributes to the Danieli Group as the school for the process engineers. Within its own area of competition, ABS after about 10 years rose to become first in Italy and number three in Europe for the production of special steels.

2015 › 2019

The financial crisis of 2007 and the slower growth in Chinese economy growth have drastically altered the global market. Moreover, today there is a global steelmaking overcapacity of 15 / 25%. It is an entirely new scenario and brings with it the certainty that there will be no returning to the former conditions, and make it essential to establish new strategies and plans. To Danieli's existing mottos, - “Danieli, the reliable and innovative partner in the metals industry” and “We do not shop around for noble equipment” - it has been decided to add: “Danieli, a step ahead”, which means, in short, that we are actively improving our current performance. Financial commitment to internationalization and technological innovation (in the last eight years Danieli’s shareholders have reinvested about US 1.6 billion into the company) is in itself not enough to ensure future growth, as it needs to go hand in-hand with an innovated game. Only five or six companies operating in the field of design and manufacture of plants for metals production remain and Danieli stands as one of the three major players. Hence, there is a need for a new play formation, which we will be setting up with the organizational and training project “Metamorphosis 2”, together with the motto “A step ahead”. The goal of Metamorphosis 2 is to make innovations in operating methods and, consequently, to organization, in order to enhance technical and economic competitiveness (Capex + Opex), speed, quality and customer service, and to have the managers take refresher courses, so that they are able to deal with the demands of today’s world. In spite of this major transformation process, Danieli intend to maintain the concept of the business unit by rationalizing and improving the working groups in terms of horizontal integration. Therefore, the results of the 2013/14 financial report must not be seen as a point of arrival but as a point of departure, with the goal of increasing the value of products, sales and market position of the Danieli Group.

Danieli Plantmaking