Danieli Group Acquires Akros Henschel SAS

Steelmaker and engineering firm Danieli & C Officine Meccaniche S.p.A., based in Buttrio, Italy, has acquired Akros Henschel SAS, a manufacturer of hydraulic scrap shears, balers, pre-shredders and vertical grinders.

The purchase follows Danieli’s late 2010 acquisition of LYNXS Shredders.

Since 1970 Akros Henschel businesses have delivered more than 450 large scrap processing machines throughout the world. Under the deal, Danieli assumes Akros Henschel’s primary manufacturing facilities in Chambéry, France and Kassel, Germany, both of which will continue to work along existing Danieli facilities in Italy, Thailand, China and India. The on-going business will adopt the name Danieli Henschel.

With annual revenues greater than €3.0 billion (US$3.97 billion), Danieli is one of the world’s largest privately controlled integrated engineering and manufacturing groups.

“The Akros Henschel product line and business units will be merged into the Danieli Centro Recycling division,” says Emanuele Brusini, executive vice president. “In the past year Danieli has delivered significant turnkey projects for scrap processing facilities within our traditional steel making markets. By adding large hydraulic scrap shears and balers we see tremendous opportunity for further vertical integration of scrap preparation, handling and continuous charging processes within electric arc furnace (EAF) melt shops.”

Daniel Damart, former managing director of Akros Henschel, will adopt a leading role within Danieli’s senior management team responsible for developing scrap processing markets outside of steel making added;

“The Henschel brand is long established and renowned within the scrap metal recycling communities of the world for quality in both design and operation,” notes Damart. “The combination of our pre-shredders, large static and mobile scrap shears and balers with Danieli’s existing shredder range enables the new group to meet the needs of both the smallest and largest scrap processing companies of the world.”