SEOUL, KOREA - SeAH Steel Corp. said on February 10 that it had acquire Inox Tech, an Italian specialty steel maker. This is the first occasion for a Korean steel pipe maker to take over a European steel maker. Howard Lee, president and CEO (Seah Steel), said, "With the purchase of Inox Tech, we will accelerate our bid to enter the global market in earnest."

 

 

Inox Tech, with the headquarters in Lendinara, a town in the Province of Rovigo, northern Italy, is a leading company producing corrosion-resistant alloy-welded pipes, especially large-diameter steel pipes for the natural gas pipeline industry.

 

The Korean steel pipe supplier paid 97.8 billion won for the 100-percent stake (285,000 shares) in the Italian company. A SeAH Steel official said, "Given the rising demand for specialty steel pipes in the energy industry, in particular in regions such as China, Brazil, and Africa, we expect the recent acquisition to pay off in a big way in the near future."

 

"Inox Tech may be used as an R&D base for us as the European demand is quite sophisticated," he added. SeAH Steel also hopes that it could enter the high value-added corrosion-resistant clad pipe market with the technology held by Inox Tech.