“Why does Ovako not want to sign contracts?”

Following our previous Strength of Steel newsletter, we received a very important question. A customer has asked us why is it “so hard to sign any kind of contract with Ovako? Or could we at least have some feedback on the contracts we would like to sign.” This is indeed a very significant topic and a key observation of how ensuring high-quality, two-way communication provides the foundation for a robust supply chain. When we addressed this particular situation, we realized that our response time could sometimes be far too long.

For any contract, we of course use our legal experts for review and amendments, which is sometimes a time consuming process to achieve a mutual understanding and a final agreement. It starts with the dialogue with our customers but also we as an organization have to improve further and review our internal processes to fulfill our customer´s expectations in a better way. This is a promise from us.

As a side comment, it should be noted that we have all recently needed to adopt new habits in how we ensure a good interaction and avoid physical distance to be a hindrance. Modern IT tools can indeed support us to become better at keeping each other well updated and to strengthen personal relationships. This is also an area where we can and will improve.

The application technology behind WR-Steel

Ovako has enjoyed a strong, long-standing reputation for our high cleanness steels, under the brand names of BQ-Steel and IQ-Steel, as well as our products for improved productivity in machining, under the M-Steel brand name. We have also established an equally strong position for our most advanced Boron Steel products produced by the Smedjebacken metallurgy operations. Ovako was in fact a pioneer in the development of the modern process for producing Boron Steel, and we have the widest portfolio of Boron grades in Europe and quite possibly the world. In recent developments we have helped to develop new wear resistant end products that deliver important customer benefits. And we have also established standard testing procedures to evaluate the wear performance of materials.

Vacuum treated steel from Smedjebacken

In 2019, we made a major investment at our Smedjebacken site in a new manufacturing route that has introduced a Vacuum Tank Degassing (VTD), The aim was to improve the characteristics of our steel and meet increasing market demands. This investment has also helped to reduce the carbon footprint and energy consumption in production, which goes well in hand with our ambition to manufacture the world’s most sustainable steel for our customers. Hot-rolled bar products from Smedjebacken and Boxholm are in fact our best benchmark for achieving a low carbon footprint.

The vacuum degassing process allows production of high-quality steel, with minimal oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen contamination. It opens the door for supply to the automotive sector and other applications, where we believe the quality, performance and the cost-effectiveness of our billet casting operations in Smedjebacken can be particularly interesting.

This is a big step for Ovako and later this year we hope to invite you to a digital inauguration of our new manufacturing route in Smedjebacken. In the meantime, we are already actively pursuing orders and we are proud to announce that we have secured our first VTD order from a major forging company in Europe for delivery to a leading OEM automotive manufacturer. More orders will surely follow and Smedjebacken is ready to meet the demands.