stockholm sweden number of locations 11 area served worldwide key people joakim olsson chairman marcus hedblom president and chief executive officer products steel products bars tubes and rings number of employees 2 905 end 2014 website http www.ovako.com ovako is a european producer and developer of high tech steel solutions for and in cooperation with its customers in the ball bearing transport and manufacturing industries . the production is based on recycled scrap and includes steel in the form of bar tube ring and pre components . ovako is one of the world s largest manufacturers of seamless tubes for the bearing industry . 1 contents 1 operations 2 products 3 production sites 4 history 5 management and board of directors 6 external links 7 references operations edit ovako produces high tech steel solutions in the form of bars tubes rings and pre components . ovako also produces steels for mining rock drilling and construction applications . 2 the company has 10 production sites in sweden finland the netherlands germany and italy and several sales companies in europe asia and the united states . ovako steel is made from recycled scrap that is then refined and transformed into products such as hot rolled or cold rolled bars with various profiles and forms of processing tubes rings and pre components . ovako s customers are primarily the european engineering industry and its subcontractors for example makers of trucks contracting plant and industrial applications the mining industry and the wind power industry . the majority of ovako s products are sold to customers in europe but steel is also exported to north america and asia for the most demanding applications . sales in 2015 were eur 834 million and the number of employees at the end of 2015 was 2 905 . operations are divided into four business areas hofors h llefors bar imatra and bar smebox . marcus hedblom has been ceo of ovako since 2015 . the chairman of ovako s board of directors is joakim olsson . products edit ovako operates on the market for long low alloy steel products . the majority of production consists of bars tubes and rings that are used in items such as ball bearings products for the automotive industry hydraulic cylinders and rock drills . ovako specialises in steel with a high degree of purity and low oxygen content steel with improved machining properties and boron steel with high abrasion resistance . pure steel is extremely durable and can therefore be used for demanding applications such as ball bearings and rings in wind turbines components in diesel engine fuel injection systems and drilling tools . ovako is europe s biggest manufacturer of piston rods for the hydraulics industry via its cromax group of companies . these are low carbon hard chromium plated rods of high strength steel . production sites edit ovako has 10 production sites boxholm forsbacka hallstahammar hofors 3 4 h llefors and smedjebacken in sweden imatra in finland molinella in italy redon in france and almelo in the netherlands . the company also has sales offices in a number of countries worldwide . history edit ovako s production is a further development of some of the ironworks set up in sweden in the 17th and 18th centuries in places such as hofors boxholm and h llefors . the ironworks gradually grew into major industrial centers and subsequently belonged to the companies that merged to form ovako today . 1900s 1950s ball bearing steel was produced in sweden at the beginning of the 20th century . in 1916 skf 5 acquired hofors 6 bruk 7 followed in 1958 by hellefors 8 bruk . 9 1935 saw the start of production of steel in imatra finland where ovako still operates today as it does in hofors and h llefors . 1960s 1970s the steel industry developed and new technology meant that it was possible to produce steel of higher quality in a shorter time . the predecessors of what is ovako today gradually began to focus production on special steel . during the same period the steelworks in smedjebacken hofors and imatra supplied increasing volumes of steel to the automotive and engineering industries . in 1969 the finnish steel companies oy vuoksenniska ab and oy fiskars ab formed a joint company ovako . in 1972 w rtsil became a shareholder in the company . 1980s 1990s in 1981 smedjebackens walsverk and boxholms ab merged to form smedjebacken boxholm st l ab . in 1988 the company was acquired by welbond which subsequently changed its name to fundia . in 1986 ovako steel was formed via a merger of skf steel and ovako . in 1991 skf became sole owner of ovako steel while operations in imatra continued under the name imatra steel . in the same year fundia was acquired by rautaruukki oy and norsk jern holding a s. 2000s 2010s in 2005 the present company ovako was formed via a merger of fundia ovako steel and imatra steel . the company is owned jointly by rautaruukki skf and w rtsila . in 2006 ovako was sold to pampus industrie beteiligungen and the dutch investors hombergh holdings bv and wp de pundert ventures bv . in 2007 pampus industrie beteiligungen became the sole owner . in 2010 ovako was sold to triton which took over everything except the wire rod division from the company . find out more about ovako on www.ovako.com management and board of directors edit management marcus hedblom ceo ola salm n interim cfo karin lagerstedt woolford evp group hr communication & she g ran nystr m evp group marketing & technology janne pirttijoki president business unit bar imatra rickard qvarfort president business unit bar smebox mathias tillman president business h llefors and evp group sales carl michael raihle president business unit hofors board of directors joakim olsson chairman of the board martin ivert member of the board nizar ghoussaini member of the board johan pernvi member of the board sakari tamminen member of the board oskari eskola member of the board timo viiperi employee representative robert nilsson employee representative external links edit official website list of steel producers companies established in 1969 world steel association jernkontoret the swedish steel producers association st l och metall steel and metal employers association linkedin ovako group references edit versatile alloys and seamless tubes . product engineering solutions magazine . new steels for mines and drilling . mining world . the steel industry reinvents itself . kth royal institute of technology . ovako steel invests for the future . evolution magazine . skf hofors sv hofors bruk h llefors sv hellefors bruks ab retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title ovako & oldid 711703572 categories steel companies of swedenw rtsil navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout 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