Bohler places six new materials on market

Colombian steel company Aceros Bohler has succeeded in placing six new hi-tech steel materials on the local and Brazilian and Argentine markets, BNamericas has learned from Miguel Torres, the firm's commercial director. Using Austrian technology, the company obtains steel from metal powder, and sells it to the metal fabrication industry to make tools. Torres said the materials would also be introduced in Chile, Peru and Ecuador. Among its plans for this year Bohler is investing US$1mn in machinery and new materials. "We are en route to completing this process," Torres said. Another objective of the company is to increase its sales team by 20%. Aceros Bohler is a subsidiary of Vienna-based Bohler-Uddeholm Group, and covers 45% of Colombian demand for tool-grade steels with products such as long steel, strip steel, welding consumables and special forgings. In Latin America, Bohler-Uddeholm is present in Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Chile, Argentina, Nicaragua and Guatemala. In Colombia the company makes knives and saws. It also has production sites in Brazil and Mexico. In 2000, the company broadened its range of products by taking on two new representations, Mexico's Soldadura UPT, of the Bohler Uddeholm group and Tizit of the Austrian firm Plansee.