JOINT VENTURE BETWEEN BEKAERT AND C.M.T.M :
BEKAERT – CMTM GmbH

 “N.V. Bekaert S.A.” (Bekaert - Belgium) and “C.M.T.M  (Composite Materials Technology and Manufacture)  Dr. MUELLER VERFAHRENSTECHNIK GmbH “ (Germany) have signed an agreement to establish a 76/24 joint venture company that will be named “BEKAERT–CMTM GmbH”.

The new joint venture will be part of Bekaert’s Functional Unit Technology and will support the Wire’s Global Business Unit Cable Solutions. The new company, incorporated at Bekaert Deutsche Holding in Germany, will produce cold cladded wires for applications in various growing markets , e.g. telecommunications, energy transmission, building and machining.

Production facility is located at Saalfeld (Thüringen, Germany) and will develop and manufacture cold cladded halfproducts.  Existing Bekaert facilities will be used for further processing. The new joint venture will offer copper, brass, aluminium and stainless steel (WIRINOX®) cladded steel wires as well as stainless steel cladded copper wire in different sizes and with different conductivity or corrosion resistance properties.

C.M.T.M. is an 8 years young and small company of 20 people, that has built up technology and experience in cold (strip) cladding, resulting in a number of basic patents concerning products, processes and equipment with a high technology content.

Bekaert is a technology driven Group, having its headquarters in Belgium, and producing and marketing a great variety of products based on metal transformation and a large variety of coating technologies.  Its current activities are built around four Business Units; Steel Wire, Merchant Products, Steel Cord and Bekaert Advanced Materials (BAM).  Bekaert has a leading position in Steel Cord and has recently declared its objective to triple turnover of its rapidly growing BAM Division within three years.  Total turnover of the Bekaert Group in 1999 was EUR 2.5 billion.

The synergy between this C.M.T.M. advanced technology and Bekaert’s core competencies in wire drawing, mechanical forming and coating will result in serving the market with existing and new products in the area of cold cladding.  It will be complementary to Bekaert’s existing know-how and manufacturing of aluminium hot cladded wires acquired in a recently formed joint venture Bedaltec S.p.A. (Bagnoli di Sopra - Italy).

Dr. V. Müller, managing director of C.M.T.M. states : “This new joint venture will enhance the implementation and further development of the cold cladding technology we developed and the market penetration of our products through Bekaert’s world wide sales network”.

P. Denecker, Chief Technology Officer of the Bekaert Group, states : “ Bekaert’s technological leadership in mechanical forming of wires and wire coatings in various market applications will be extended by Dr. Müller’s well elaborated and promising technology “.

P. De Muynck, Business Unit Manager of Cable Solutions products states : “ This new joint venture opens new opportunities fitting in our business of telecommunications and energy transmission by offering special cladded wires with specific characteristics of strength and electrical conductivity“.