Voestalpine Stahl GmbH, a company of the listed voestalpine AG, and the Japanese steel group, Kobe Steel, have announced plans to cooperate in steel sheet technologies. Areas of cooperation will focus primarily on steel products for the automotive sector.

The two companies will sign a basic agreement detailing such cooperative efforts as intensive teamwork in the area of technology and know-how exchange, and joint research and development of high-strength and coated steels for the automotive industry.

voestalpine Stahl GmbH and Kobe Steel already have research activities focused on the automotive sector and have developed tailor-made solutions in close cooperation with customers. Both companies have focused on the development of high-strength, coated and pre-painted steel sheet to meet growing market demand.

The teamwork between voestalpine Stahl GmbH and Kobe Steel is intended to support the growth strategy of both enterprises in the automotive sector. Customers also stand to benefit from the resulting advantages. This partnership also represents an ideal response to the demands of the globalizing automotive industry.

Capital linkage between the two companies is neither planned, nor foreseen for the longer term.

voestalpine Stahl GmbH is Austria's largest steel producer with an annual capacity of 4 million tonnes of crude steel. Sales amounted to EUR 2.1 billion, about 30% of which derived from the most important customer segment, the automotive industry. Located in Linz, voestalpine Stahl currently employs a workforce of some 7,000 people, more than 400 of whom work in the R&D (including quality departments and laboratories) areas. The yearly R&D budget amounts to around 2% of sales.

Kobe Steel Ltd. is one of Japan's leading steelmakers and producers of aluminum and copper products. Other businesses include welding consumables, infrastructure and plant engineering, and industrial machinery. The company also has businesses in electronics and information systems. In the year ended March 2001, Kobe Steel produced 6.53 million tonnes of crude steel and had non-consolidated sales of 816.8 billion Yen (EUR 7.6 billion). Employees numbered 9,828 in the same period. Approximately 2% of sales are allocated for R&D.