Ruukki is to expand its global sales network for special steels by opening new offices and by recruiting more than 40 experts to strengthen sales and technical services. Growth in special steels is being pursued in Asia, Africa and in the Americas as well as in Europe.

Ruukki aims to have its sales network covering all main market areas to support its existing effective network of partners. Ruukki will hire new people in the Americas, Africa, China, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Australia. In Europe, Ruukki will recruit new sales professionals in almost all the countries it has operations in, including Germany, as well as Poland and other Eastern European countries.

During the current year, Ruukki aims to turn its steels business more strongly into a special steels business consisting of high-strength, wear-resistant and special-coated steels. At the same time, the company will accelerate global sales of special steels, which means expanding and diversifying the distribution network and significantly strengthening the sales organisation. This spring, Ruukki opened new sales offices in Toronto, Canada and in Santiago, Chile.

"Being close to our customers also geographically will enable us to deliver an even faster and more flexible service than earlier. Among other sectors, the construction and mining industries offer us significant growth potential in many developed and emerging markets. Strengthening our technical customer support will enable us to offer technical advice and co-operation to an increasing number of customers," says Thomas H?rnfeldt, SVP, Special Steels & International Sales at Ruukki Metals.

Ruukki's specialisation in the steel business has proven successful. The profitability of special steels is clearly higher than that of standard products and price fluctuations are smaller. In recent years Ruukki has built a platform for specialisation and now has a good market position and strong special steel brands such as Raex, Optim, Laser and Ramor. Success in the present business environment calls for increasingly advanced and faster specialisation.