Aurubis can acquire remaining shares in Deutsche Gießdraht

13.07.2018

After a merger control decision by the Bundeskartellamt, Aurubis AG, Hamburg, can acquire a further 40 % of the shares in and therefore the sole control of Deutsche Gießdraht GmbH, Emmerich am Rhein.

Up to now Deutsche Gießdraht has been a joint venture between Aurubis and Codelco Kupferhandel GmbH, Düsseldorf and has produced continuous cast copper rod exclusively for its two parent companies. Aurubis and Codelco have sold the continuous cast copper rod in competition with one another. Their customers are industrial processors and several traders.

Andreas Mundt, President of the Bundeskartellamt: "Aurubis is by far the largest producer of continuous cast copper rod in Europe. With Aurubis' complete acquisition of the production at Deutsche Gießdraht, Codelco as a close competitor will disappear from the market. Nevertheless, based on the information available, customers will still have other alternative domestic and foreign producers to choose from after the acquisition. A prohibition of the merger project would therefore not have been justified."

Continuous cast copper rod is the basic product used in the cable and wire industry and is mainly processed into power cables, magnet coils and products used in telecommunications and data technology.

Deutsche Gießdraht is one of the leading producers of continuous cast copper rod in Europe.

Aurubis, which up to 2009 traded under the name "Norddeutsche Affinerie Aktiengesellschaft", is an integrated copper producer and even before the merger was by far the leading copper producer in Europe. Apart from its shareholding in Deutsche Gießdraht, it operates other production sites in Europe.

As a result of the acquisition, Codelco, a close competitor of Aurubis, will disappear from the market. Customers will, however, still have the possibility to switch to alternative suppliers after the merger. Several domestic and foreign producers in Europe supply continuous cast copper rod of comparable quality. The authority's investigations have shown that customers are also in a position to easily switch to another producer of continuous cast copper rod and have in some cases also done so in the past. Aurubis's argument that its competitors also have sufficient capacity to actually supply any customers wishing to change supplier, could not be disproved in the investigations.

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