STEEL BEING REBORN – One of the ways that steel is created is to be reborn from its own scrap. This characteristic means it will always have the potential for new life. Steel has been central to the economy of Riesa (Saxony) since the 19th century. The fall of the Berlin wall changed everything though, in social and in production terms. The Kombinat in what is now the ex-GDR, where the Riesa steelworks is situated, is preparing to close the business. More than 11 thousand people will be losing their jobs. Feralpi, which has been exporting steel to Germany since that start of the 1970s, sees an opportunity to become a producer in an area featuring significant infrastructure growth. This sparks the idea that would become a reality, that of recreating a facility in the town of Riesa. Thanks to the expertise honed at the Lonato and Calvisano facilities in Italy, the plan involves creating a modern mini mill that focuses on steel production using an electric arc furnace. In the space of a few months the plan is taking shape, and February 1992 sees the start of the story that now bears the name of Feralpi Stahl.
HISTORY AND EMOTIONS – The docufilm not only gives the timeline of events, but also the emotions of the protagonists in the facility's first thirty years in business. These are the people giving their account of the relaunch and progress made by the company over the years. An undertaking, in the sense of a genuine goal, which couldn't have been successful without the decisive role that they themselves have played during its journey. Collaboration, engagement, inclusion, not to mention determination, commitment and passion, are human values that have united Germany and Italy. What emerges is testimony to how, even in difficult times, problems dictated by a different language or culture can be overcome when there's a shared objective. Thanks to all of this, Feralpi and its people have given new life to the world of steel in Saxony. Proof that steel always has another life.
Among the witness accounts in the film is one by Giuseppe Pasini, the Feralpi Group president: «The people retracing this story are a bit like the fathers and mothers of our German company. Today, 30 years on, we have the responsibility to hand down the legacy of the work that has been done to new generations, so that values such as sacrifice and courage are not lost. This memory, which needs to be safeguarded and passed on, is a reminder of a challenge that belongs to the past, yet also tells us that the goals of the future can only be achieved through cooperation. Feralpi Stahl, and the group as a whole, would not be what it is today if not everyone, from managers to factory workers, had worked together. »
«For us, this film – explains Uwe Reinecke, current Plant Manager at ESF Elbe-Stahlwerke Feralpi GmbH – gives a wonderful insight into contemporary history. But that's not all, it shows how important the people who have accompanied FERALPI STAHL over the past 30 years have been and indeed still are. They had faith in Giuseppe Pasini's entrepreneurial vision and worked hard to make the Riesa steelworks what it is today, an indispensable partner for industry, an environmental pioneer - true to our guiding principle of 'producing and growing with respect for people and the environment' and one of the largest employers in the area. I am really proud to have contributed to this. »
«The 30th anniversary – adds Isabella Manfredi, the Communications and External Relations Manager of the Feralpi Group - was an opportunity to share this meaningful and rich history. It was not meant to be a story told by us, but rather by the people who have been part of it. Using docufilms nowadays is one of the most authentic and fascinating modes of communication. Even those who know nothing about the steel industry can be moved by the living testimony. For us, it is also a further way of passing on the corporate culture and values, such as inclusion, which - even 30 years ago - were so fundamental to the company's growth».
«The film “Steel Reborn” - says Alessandro Milini, Albatros Film director and CEO – is not a conventional documentary on industrial production, but rather a journey back in time into the emotions and memories of some of the players who witnessed the birth of Feralpi Stahl. At the production level, the difficulty was recording and understanding more than 10 hours of testimonies (mostly in German with Saxon dialect) and making a selection to condense them into the final 40-minute montage, while making logical sense and respecting temporal events. The result is a coherent narrative that above all conveys the human relationship between two different mindsets that managed to understand and respect each other in this industrial 'adventure’».
The Feralpi Group is one of the leading steel producers in Europe (€1.93bn turnover in 2021, with over 1800 direct employees in 2022 in 7 countries) and specializes in the production of steels for both construction and special applications. From the parent company Feralpi Siderurgica, founded in 1968 in Lonato del Garda (Brescia), a path of growth has given rise to an international, diversified and verticalized Group upstream and downstream of the production and marketing chain. The Feralpi Group is one of the leaders on the national and European markets in the production of reinforcing steel in bars, smooth and ribbed wire rod, rebar, drawn wire and welded mesh. Feralpi’s mission is not only to produce the best construction steels, but to do so in the most sustainable way possible, while respecting people and their diversity and the environment, by reducing consumption and emissions using the best available technologies, through investments in technology combined with intensive innovation and research.
www.feralpigroup.com
For more info:
Feralpi Group public relations Isabella Manfredi | isabella.manfredi@it.feralpigroup.com | tel. 0039 030.9996293 | mob. 338.6029933
Media Relations Marco Taesi | marco.taesi@it.feralpigroup.com | tel. 0039 030.9996583 | mob. 339.6430179