WAELZHOLZ SYMPOSIUM 2019

Inspire. Innovate. Improve.

To mark the company’s 190th anniversary, Waelzholz Germany invited its customers to an inspiring series of talks on April 4, 2019, that took a closer look at the demanding challenges the steel industry will face in the future. The event took place where it all began back in 1829: in the Nahmertal in Hagen-Hohenlimburg, Germany. Numerous national and international business partners from the automotive, industrial, and energy sectors accepted the invitation and came to discuss Waelzholz’s proposed solutions. In addition to Waelzholz’s corporate philosophy, the event focused on current economic and societal changes.

Dr.-Ing. Hans-Toni Junius, CEO of the Waelzholz Group, kicked off the event with a brief look back at the origins of Waelzholz and a presentation of the company’s current objectives and investments, before opening the stage for speeches from other employees. These addressed how Waelzholz is responding to the current transformations in business, politics, and society with a constant look ahead and helping its customers manage these changes. As part of an increasingly digitized value network, Waelzholz supplies the international market with products of a consistently high material and service quality. The company guarantees the quality of its own products through joint development activities with partners and customers. This is how Waelzholz creates application-oriented steel materials such as NO grades with low nominal thicknesses for use in high-speed vehicle drive systems. Waelzholz’s materials technology department presented the advantages of high-performance electrical steel strip for the electrification of the drive train. The technology leader is also exploiting the potential of digitization, which will enable a high degree of communication between the ERP systems of Waelzholz and its business partners in the future. At the same time, the focus will further be on personal relationships and customer trust.

Guest speaker Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Bert Rürup, President of the Handelsblatt Research Institute, analyzed the overall impact of political and economic changes on multinational companies. Despite some risks for the German economy, Prof. Rürup emphasized that companies have always been able to secure a strong position with innovative solutions and products.

The highlight of the subsequent evening event in Iserlohn was the exciting speech from science journalist Rangar Yogeshwar on artificial intelligence. The realization that today’s generation is the first with the ability to directly change the world which it lives in left room for further discussion.

All in all, the symposium was a successful event from which customers and business partners as well as the Waelzholz participants were able to draw inspiration and motivation for future collaboration.