20.10.2005
Approximately 84 % from the total production in VÍTKOVICE STEEL is represented by flat products, i.e., by plates. The largest part of plates is used in mechanical engineering (30 %), civil engineering (28 %), shipbuilding (20 %) and also line pipe (11 %). VÍTKOVICE STEEL supplies its plates also for manufacture of heavy construction machines and pressure vessels.
„The largest share of shipbuilding plates produced in our company is supplied to Polish and Croatian shipyards that traditionally buy 60 to 80 thousand tons shipbuilding plates on average. However, this year we managed to significantly increase supplies also for important shipyards in Finland, which is attested also by the contract for supply of 10 000 tons of shipbuilding plates which we signed with the Scandinavian shipyard named Aker Finnyards at the 47th International Engineering Fair,“ explained Jiří Poštulka, member of the Board of Directors and Commercial Director of VÍTKOVICE STEEL. The value of the contract which will start to be performed this year will be approx. 200 million crowns. More than 3 000 tons of shipbuilding plates will be produced and shipped from VÍTKOVICE STEEL this year.
In the last two years the supplies for the shipbuilding industry were approximately at the same level – last year we produced and supplied almost 170 thousand tons of shipbuilding plates. But this year VÍTKOVICE STEEL managed to expand lucrative supplies of high quality flat products for line pipes. „Last year the share of these products represented 2 % of the total plate production in our company. This year this share will reach some 11 % and in 2006 we expect an increase by another 6-8 %,“ explained Poštulka. „The objective of our company is to produce plates for line pipes in the required high quality grades on a permanent basis and to include these products to the current product portfolio in VÍTKOVICE STEEL. Expansion of these products this year resulted in a slight decrease in supplies for the shipbuilding industry; however next year we expect an increase in both industries,“ added Poštulka.
In the Czech Republic, special high quality hot rolled plates for line pipes are produced and supplied only by one steel company, i.e., by VÍTKOVICE STEEL, who is a certified supplier of plates for the petroleum industry. The certificate from the American Petroleum Institute (API), which opened the way to the customers from renown companies – suppliers of oil pipe lines and gas lines, was awarded to VÍTKOVICE STEEL at the beginning of 2004 after demanding inspections. VÍTKOVICE STEEL owns in total approximately fifty product certificates, the company has been certified by 8 globally recognized certification companies, products of the company are accepted by such inspection companies like American Bureau of Shipping, Norwegian Det Norske Veritas, German Germanischer Lloyd, Russian Marine Register of Shipping, or British Lloyd´s Register of Shipping. And this is one of the reasons why VÍTKOVICE STEEL, a. s., ranks among the most prestigious producers in the world with a possibility of supplies for attractive projects in the shipping industry.
Information on supplies of shipbuilding plates: Scandinavian shipyards have been buying shipbuilding plates from VÍTKOVICE STEEL for many years. In 2003 the company supplied to Aker Finnyards some 5400 t of plates for the erection of a ship named Victoria I – a ship 193 m long, 29 m wide with a gross tonnage of 40 000 t, which is able to transport 2500 passengers. Victoria I is a part of the fleet of the largest Estonian shipping company Tallink Group AS and it has been used for transport of passengers and vehicles on the line Stockholm-Tallin since March 2004. Another more than 3000 tons of shipbuilding plates was supplied in 2004 by VÍTKOVICE STEEL, a. s., to the same customer for erection of a 177 m long and 28 m wide full-fledged luxurious yacht named BIRKA PARADISE, which in November 2004 was handed over to the client, i.e., a Swedish company Birka Line. Plates were supplied from the Czechia to Finland gradually from June 2003 until the beginning of 2004. The vessel was floated in April 2004 and today it is sailing its passengers on a regular line between Stockholm (Sweden) and Mariehamn, (Finland).
