Finnish and Italian flexibility and innovation remain key factors behind the Danieli-Pesmel cooperation to give customers a one-stop shop.
The mutual partnership was forged just one-and-a-half years ago, merging Danieli’s knowledge of metals processes with Pesmel’s material flow know-how. The aim is to develop and supply tailored, seamlessly integrated material flow solutions at steel and aluminum mills.
These involve production, processing, and handling flat and long products such as wire rod bundles, merchant bars, plates, and coils – whether hot-rolled, cold-rolled, or coated.
Both companies pioneer solutions and technologies for logistics, material handling, and warehousing to increase plant efficiency and capacity utilization. Danieli delivers process lines and also specializes in EOT cranes. Pesmel’s strengths lie in logistics and automated storage and retrieval systems ASRS for products including wire rods and cold-rolled steel, integrating automated material-handling systems into the production process.
Merging knowledge brings innovative benefits
“Both companies are key manufacturers and have a very strong, innovative soul,” remarks Lorenzo Bacchetti, Senior Manager, Cranes Automation and Automatic Yards at Danieli.
The cooperation also merges know-how. Benefits for the customers include fast feeding to production lines thanks to an intermediate automated high-bay storage serving all process lines. Full automation with real-time tracking of products assures high capacity and throughput per hour, as well as enhanced delivery accuracy.
“To our customers, this cooperation means that we can integrate the mill to a level where it runs as a one complete unit,” says Tony Leikas, CEO Pesmel.
Integrated and automated material flow means that bottlenecks are eliminated. Pesmel’s high-bay storage solution cuts down the amount of floor space needed for storing products in comparison to traditional warehouses, and no separate storages are required after the process lines.
Production can be adjusted thanks to reduced dependency on EOT cranes, which are used just for loading vehicles. Pesmel’s automated high-bay storage can pick and prepare loads in 20 minutes, speeding up logistics and reducing operator costs by up to 80 percent.
Safety is key too.
“Injuries and fatalities occur mainly in warehousing and logistics. In my opinion, the main benefit to our customers is that all logistics and activities – especially lifting of loads – will be done without people nearby,” explains Stefano Giacomelli, Executive Vice President of Danieli.
“These factors give Danieli and Pesmel advantages over the competition and bring their customers favorable total cost of ownership,” remarks Tony Leikas.
Good cooperation and a one-stop shop
“Both companies saw an opportunity and started working on that,” Giacomelli comments about the mutual partnership.
Vice-President, Metals at Pesmel, Juha Suksi, remarks that “the cooperation has gone well, especially after last year’s training of Danieli staff by Pesmel. This made it possible to spread the Pesmel-Danieli cooperation more widely within both organizations, which we’re very pleased about.”
There is also the matter of convenience.
“We can deliver the entire package as one. We also gain global market penetration thanks to sales representation and a worldwide supply chain, not to mention regional customer support. This is becoming increasingly critical and key in acquiring new contracts,” says Danieli’s Lorenzo Bacchetti.
Juha Suksi notes that market and customer reactions have been mainly positive to the joint cooperation. Stefano Giacomelli at Danieli concurs.
“We can say that they have reacted with interest, because they understand that the solution portfolio has been enlarged. They can also benefit from new trends like the one that flow how technology brings and zero damage to final products.”
“There are also energy savings, footprint reductions for greenfield plants, as well as better use of existing space to enhance existing plant performance without needing additional space,” he adds.
Existing deliveries, a decade of cooperation
Danieli and Pesmel already supply common deliveries to Danieli Group subsidiary Acciaierie Bertoli Safau S.p.A (ABS) in Italy and a US steel products manufacturer.
ABS trusted Pesmel’s experience as a supplier of demanding high-bay storages. The simulation Pesmel provided during the initial phases helped them understand their concept before the system was manufactured and implemented.
One of the winning issues for the US customer was in-mill integration. “With them, it was being able to adapt process lines to the logistics systems seamlessly for the customer, and vice versa,” says Lorenzo Bacchetti.
For Pesmel, it was a 10-year co-operation that won them the contract. The customer made decisions quickly once they had a suitable project because they trusted Pesmel, both technically and concept-wise.
“Getting another project for the same customer helped us since it was with the same technical concept. Cooperation with Danieli helped us to find solutions for interfaces with their process lines, which the customer also respected,” Juha Suksi explains.
“There are plans for future expansion of the Danieli-Pesmel alliance with products such as plates, bars, spooled coils, billets, or round blooms, but firstly it’s about natural evolution of this partnership when it comes to cold rolled and wire rod products,” says Danieli’s Lorenzo Bacchetti.
“We have a lot of ideas, teams, and people, which in the end are key for both companies to reach our targets,” he concludes.