Rheinmetall Automotive

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Rheinmetall Automotive AG

logo
legal form Corporation
founding 1997
Seat Neckarsulm , Baden-Wuerttemberg
Number of employees around 11,000 (2019)
sales EUR 2.736 billion (2019)
Branch Automotive supplier
Website www.rheinmetall-automotive.com
As of December 31, 2019

The Rheinmetall Automotive AG (formerly KSPG and Kolbenschmidt Pierburg ) is the automotive division of the parent company Rheinmetall . The industrial company was created in 1997 through the merger of KS Kolbenschmidt GmbH Neckarsulm with Pierburg GmbH Neuss and is therefore commonly known as Kolbenschmidt or Pierburg at the various headquarters . The company employs around 11,000 people at around 40 production sites in Europe, North and South America, Japan, India and China. The product development takes place in cooperation with international automobile manufacturers. Rheinmetall Automotive is one of the hundred largest automotive suppliers in the world and an important partner to the automotive industry for exhaust gas recirculation systems , secondary air systems , coolant pumps and pistons for passenger car, gasoline and diesel engines and in the commercial vehicle sector.

Divisions

The company is divided into three " divisions ":

  • "Hardparts" summarizes the business with pistons for passenger cars, commercial vehicles and large engines, cylinder crankcases and cylinder heads as well as other cast products, plain bearings and continuously cast products,
  • "Mechatronics" specializes in modules and systems for reducing pollutants, solenoid valves and actuators as well as products for the commercial vehicle and off-road sector,
  • “Aftermarket” is responsible for the global spare parts business for engine reconditioners and independent workshops in more than 130 countries under the name of Motorservice.

Company history

Kolbenschmidt

Rheinmetall Automotive headquarters in Neckarsulm

Karl Schmidt (1876–1954), son of the NSU Motorenwerke founder Christian Schmidt , founded the Deutsche Ölfeuerungswerke on April 1, 1910 in Heilbronn . Schmidt had trained at NSU in Neckarsulm and at Austin in Birmingham and was chief engineer and authorized signatory at NSU. He patented an oil-fired melting process for metal, produced corresponding melting furnaces and also processed light metal scrap himself. In 1917 the company moved and expanded to Neckarsulm, where it now also produced piston blanks for the automotive industry. In 1924, Metallgesellschaft from Frankfurt became the majority owner of the company for further expansion , and founder Schmidt left in 1927. In 1934 the final production of pistons was started, and in 1937 the furnace construction division was sold. The Neckarsulm plant was almost completely destroyed in an air raid in March 1945, but was rebuilt after the war. Until February 1948, the plant, which was being rebuilt, was confiscated for reparation purposes, and until April 1949 there was an asset freeze. In 1951, around 1,100 people were employed by Kolbenschmidt in Neckarsulm, and 500 at the Hamburg plant. The company grew continuously in the 1950s and early 1960s. The development stagnated slightly during the recession of 1966/67, but in 1969 Kolbenschmidt was still the largest light metal casting plant in Europe and the market leader among piston and bearing manufacturers with five plants and a total of 5400 employees. In 1972, production with NC machines was introduced, and CAD programs were used from 1976 . In 1978 the annual turnover exceeded the mark of 500 million DM. In the 1980s the company expanded in foreign business and was able to increase the group turnover immensely. Towards the end of the 1980s, consolidated annual sales exceeded DM 1 billion for the first time, with foreign sales accounting for 42.1 percent in the 1988/89 business year with annual sales of DM 1.288 billion. In 1989 Kolbenschmidt AG had 6389 employees, 3412 of them in the main Neckarsulm plant. KSPG AG is still in the immediate vicinity of Audi AG. Together, the companies provide more than half of the almost 30,000 jobs in Neckarsulm.

KS HUAYU AluTech GmbH (formerly Aluminum-Technologie ), which belongs to the KSPG Group and is also based in Neckarsulm, established a joint venture with HUAYU Automotive Systems Co., Ltd. in 2014 . (HASCO) founded. HASCO is majority owned by the Chinese SAIC . Both partners have a 50 percent stake in the joint venture, which will continue to be based in Neckarsulm.

Pierburg

Bernhard Pierburg (1869–1942) founded the steel trading company Gebr. Pierburg oHG on March 25, 1909 together with his brothers Heinrich-Hermann and Wilhelm in Wilmersdorf near Berlin , which was converted into a stock corporation in 1923 . In 1926 Pierburg acquired the insolvent Arthur Haendler & Cie. , which manufactured French Solex carburetors under license . In 1928 Alfred Pierburg (1903–1975) developed his own carburetor , which was installed in Hanomag vehicles. In 1935, the Deutsche Vergaser-Gesellschaft (DVG) was founded, which in future operated separately from the steel trading business. Pierburg AG was liquidated in 1938 .

In 1937 the four sons, including Alfred and Walter and their father Bernhard, founded the Gebr. Pierburg KG family holding company , under whose roof the Deutsche Vergaser-Gesellschaft mbH and Autotechnik Beteiligungs- und Verwertungs GmbH were merged.

As a result of important armaments contracts from DVG, Alfred Pierburg rose to become Wehrwirtschaftsführer West , who coordinated arms production in occupied France. The DVG production facilities were relocated from Berlin to Lausitz in 1945 , but were confiscated and dismantled there after the end of the war. After the end of the war, Pierburg succeeded in setting up a new company in Neuss and West Berlin , which once again grew to a significant size with the production of carburetors. In 1986, Pierburg was acquired by Rheinmetall AG . There are other plants in Nettetal : originally the Rokal company , taken over by Pierburg in 1978, which is to be closed in mid-2015, as well as in Hartha , which was acquired by Treuhand in 1992 . The plants in Nettetal and Neuss were combined in 2015 in the newly established Niederrhein location in Neuss.

In the 1970s, one of the first wildcat strikes in Germany took place in Neuss . The Kunstverein in Cologne showed in 2005 for the first time in 1974 resulting documentation Your struggle is our struggle on a wildcat strike at Pierburg in Neuss in 1973. The walkout of several hundred migrants should be with a model for the work fights of the year 1973rd

In 2014, the Niederrhein plant on the pier in Neuss City was moved into. A total of around 50 million euros has been invested in the location with around 700 employees. The focus here is on the production of components to reduce pollutants and consumption, in particular the area of solenoid valves and the assembly of exhaust gas recirculation coolers. The new location is to become a lead plant in its product areas within the international structure of Pierburg.

Engine service

The “Aftermarket” division is managed under the Motorservice brand and specializes in the national and international spare parts business. The Motorservice Group is a leading supplier of engine components for the independent aftermarket with the premium brands KOLBENSCHMIDT, PIERBURG and TRW Engine Components. The Motorservice Group employs almost 600 people worldwide. These work at the headquarters in Neuenstadt am Kocher, Baden-Württemberg, and in the eight subsidiaries in Germany, France, Spain, Brazil, China and Turkey.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b Consolidated financial statements for the financial year January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2013 of Rheinmetall AG in the electronic Federal Gazette;
  2. wz-newsline.de , June 29, 2012: wz-newsline.de: Pierburg: Production goes completely to Neuss
  3. wz-newsline.de , July 18, 2012: Pierburg moves to Neuss - but no dismissals
  4. hartha-aktuell.de: Pierburg is one of the most important employers in our region today
  5. lina: family ties | Cologne Art Association. Retrieved October 25, 2019 (German).
  6. "Your fight is our fight". In: Meinwanderungsland. February 18, 2019, accessed on October 25, 2019 (German).
  7. ms-motorservice.com: Motorservice Group.