Content area
Full Text
OUTSOURCING FOR PROFIT
A toll pickling line for the biggest hot-rolled coils is a new addition to Europe's range of services for the steel sector, reports Steve Karpel.
the key to a successful outsourcing business is, by definition, the ability to supply a service that many people want, but which they cannot provide for themselves at a comparable cost.
With the start-up of Belgium's Europickling in May, a specialist toll-- pickler of hot-rolled coil, managing director Henry van Heyghen believes that he is doing precisely that for specialised steelmakers and processors. And if they are not convinced, the company letterhead adds the enticing slogan "We process your steel into money!"
Van Heyghen has considerable experience in providing services for steelmakers, traders and stockholders with his family-owned service centre Van Heyghen Staal (VHS), based in Evergem near Ghent, Belgium. It has three coil processing lines equipped with levelling, cutting and slitting facilities. (Belgian steelworks Duferco La Louviere formerly had a 38% stake in VHS, but the latter bought back this stake last August and once again became a 100% family-owned company.)
In 1999, Van Heyghen decided that there was a need for a specialised pickling line that could handle heavy gauges of hot coil, up to 12mm thick, and the construction of Europickling began in October that year, next to the VHS service centre (see MBM March 1998).
Van Heyghen describes Europickling as "another...