1. Why is SMS Demag now named SMS Siemag?
The roots of our family company stretch back more than 130 years. What started with a forge in Siegen, founded in 1871, grew into a regional company group that, by the early 1900s, diversified into other areas of machine and carriage construction later called: Siemag (Siegener Maschinenbau AG). Then, in 1927, Siemag took over Maschinenfabrik Klein in Dahlbruch – a move that brought it into rolling mill construction for the first time. Later, this would become the group’s key product area. After World War II and under the direction of Bernhard Weiss, Siemag advanced into one of Germany’s five largest rolling mill manufacturers, also making a name for itself internationally. The next, much bigger, expansion phase started after Heinrich Weiss took over in 1971. Two years later, he initiated the merger between Schloemann and Siemag, also integrating other leading names such as Concast, MAN-GHH and Demag. That transformed the company into a major global player in machinery and plant construction for the metallurgical industry. Now that the Weiss family has, over recent years, bought back all the externally held shares, the largest Business Area, SMS Demag, can once again take up its traditional name SMS Siemag.

2. Are there any other reasons for giving up the name SMS Demag?
The name SMS Demag dates from 1999, when SMS Schloemann-Siemag AG merged with the metallurgical arm of Mannesmann Demag AG.

A subsidiary included in the takeover, Mannesmann Demag Meer (Mönchengladbach), became the leading company of a second group alongside SMS Siemag. Added to the scope of supply were three new Product Areas (long product mills, extrusion and forging presses), and further subsidiaries were acquired (SMS Elotherm, SMS Schumag) which created a larger Business Area. Now SMS Siemag and SMS Meer together form the SMS group.

The reason for dropping the name SMS Demag in favor of SMS Siemag is the end of three decades of external shareholders (MAN and Siemens), so that the company is once again fully owned by the Weiss family.

3. Where did the name Siemag originate?
Originally, Siemag stood for Siegener Maschinenbau AG. The name was coined in 1918, when the second generation of the Weiss family merged three machine factories into one company. It came from the company location of Siegen in the Siegerland region of Germany.

4. What is the role of SMS Siemag within the SMS group?
In terms of business volume and employee numbers, SMS Siemag is the largest Business Area in the SMS group within the holding, SMS GmbH.

Basically, SMS Siemag is responsible for metallurgical and rolling mill technology for flat products, as well as for SMS Concast. The second Business Area, SMS Meer, focuses on tube and long product plants as well as shaping technology for other product groups.

5. What are the key facts and figures of Business Area SMS Siemag?
The SMS group as a whole generated an order intake of some Euro 5.2 billion in 2008, with sales of Euro 3.6 billion, and around 9,000 employees.
Business Area SMS Siemag has a workforce of just under 6,000, who last year achieved an order intake of some Euro 3.9 billion and sales totaling close to Euro 2.5 billion.
In terms of business volume, the SMS group is the world’s largest supplier of metallurgical and rolling mill technology.

6. Who is in charge of SMS Siemag?
SMS Siemag AG, Düsseldorf and Hilchenbach, Germany, is directed by the Managing Board, consisting of Dr. Kay Mayland (Chairman), Burkhard Dahmen, Dieter Rosenthal, Eckhard Schulte and Rüdiger Zerbe. Dr. Heinrich Weiss presides over the Supervisory Board.

7. Who are the main customers (key accounts) of SMS Siemag?
All the world’s major steel, aluminum, and non-ferrous metal manufacturing and processing companies.

We have maintained business contacts with many of our customers for generations.

8. What is the SMS Siemag corporate culture?
SMS Siemag is a machine and plant constructor with the structures of a medium-sized company, steeped in a long tradition. Our home is in Germany, our business all over the world. We develop innovative technologies while always taking the long-term view. Just as important to us are stability, reliability, and responsibility toward our customers – values unchanged for more than 130 years.

Our family of companies, with employees from more than 40 nations, is marked by a culture of independent thinking, openness, team spirit, and flat hierarchies. That applies everywhere in the world, in China and India, North and South America, as well as Russia.

Now we offer our familiar range of products and services, whether steelmaking and continuous casting technology, hot and cold rolling mills, or strip processing lines, under the traditional name of SMS Siemag.

One special focus is on electrics and automation. We are continually expanding this field by takeovers and in-house growth. As a result, our list of references is lengthening all the time.

Equally vital for our strategy as an all-inclusive supplier is a full range of services. This is an area we have significantly built up in recent years. That’s because more and more customers want to outsource their maintenance and monitoring work to their plant constructor.

The newly-founded SMS Siemag Energy and Environment Technology Product Area supplies efficient, resource-saving solutions to meet today’s ever stricter environment regulations.

9. Will the new name affect existing customer relations?
Not at all. SMS Siemag AG continues all the activities of the former SMS Demag AG. Nothing about the content of existing relations will change. The locations and people to contact remain the same as before.