NORDBERG GROWS THROUGH A MERGER

Nordberg Group, Milwaukee, Wisc., will become one of two major operating units within the Machinery Business Area of the company resulting from the merger between Valmet and Rauma Corporations. Current planning calls for the newly-combined entity, known as Metso Corp., Helsinki, Finland, to be split into three business areas—fiber and paper processing, automation and controls, and machinery. Nordberg will be the major operating unit for rock crushing and will retain its company name.

Nordberg Group president and CEO Olli Vaartimo says the merger will be beneficial for Nordberg. It will help strengthen the company’s market position and create a global leader in its main product areas, he notes. Nordberg already uses Valmet’s transmission products in its grinding mills and may also be able to use other Valmet products such as crushing equipment.

The United States Department of Justice has given the green light to the merger of Case Corp., Racine, Wisc., into New Holland N.V., the global equipment maker that is part of Italy’s Fiat S.p.A.

In a late 1999 press event, the merger of the two companies into an entity named CNH Global N.V. was announced.

The companies have agreed with the Justice Department to make two divestiture moves in order to receive approval for the deal:

· Case Corp. must sell its 50% stake in Hay & Forage Industries, a Kansas-based farm implement company

· New Holland must sell its Versatile four-wheel drive tractor line and its Genesis two-wheel drive tractor line, along with the Winnipeg, Canada plant where the machines are made.

"We are moving quickly to complete the merger of Case and New Holland and then rapidly begin the integration process," says Jean-Pierre Rosso, chairman and CEO of Case Corp., and Umberto Quadrino, chairman and CEO of New Holland N.V., in a joint statement."

The two CEOs are projecting a cost savings of $400 million to $500 million by combining the companies. In North America, the newly-combined entity will operate from headquarters in Racine, Wisc., according to a source within the company.

The estimated combined 1998 revenues of Case and New Holland are about $12 billion, CNH President and CEO Steven Lamb noted at a press conference held in the Chicago area. "We are extremely excited about the opportunity in front of us," Lamb comments.

Part of CNH’s strategy will include emphasizing product differentiation between the Case and New Holland product lines. Case and New Holland equipment will retain their brand names and be known as separate product lines of CNH, Lamb says. There is varying geographic recognition of the brand names of Case and New Holland and CNH wants to keep the market strengths those names carry, he says. "We are moving to execute a global platform strategy but still give the customers the differentiation they want," Lamb says.

At the same time, a move toward "product commonality" will involve making parts for similar Case and New Holland product lines interchangeable to give the company more leverage when it comes to purchasing materials and to keep costs down for the buyer.

IPS Balers Inc., Baxley, Ga., has announced the sale of an AT-695 HS-100 baling system to the Evergreen Recycling facility in Augusta, Ga. The hinged sidewall horizontal auto-tie from IPS (International Press & Shear) will be used by Evergreen, a company established by AlliedSignal Inc. and DSM Chemicals North America Inc. to recycle nylon 6 carpeting. The facility is projected to recycle as much as 200 million pounds of post-consumer carpeting and convert it into carpolactam—a raw material used in the manufacturing process that creates new nylon 6 carpeting.

Kolberg-Pioneer Inc. (KPI), Yankton, S.D., and Johnson Crushers International, Eugene, Ore., have announced plans to consolidate their sales and marketing efforts into a single operation to be headed by KPI sales manager Mike Johnson and KPI marketing manager Jim Lincoln. The combined processing equipment line is the largest obtainable from a single distribution network within the aggregate and recycling industry, the company claims.

Columbus Equipment Co., Columbus, Ohio, has been named as Nordberg’s distributor of its Con-Agg Crushing and Recycling line and its Mobile Screen line. Nordberg’s Crushing line includes all jaw, cone, impact, gyratory crushers, portable plants, track-mounted crushing units, screens and portable and stationary conveyors. Nordberg has distribution in more than 45 states, four provinces in Canada and in Latin America.

Nordberg has also announced Road- builders Machinery and Supply Co. Inc. as its distributor for Con-Agg Crushing and recycling line for Kansas and Western Missouri. Roadbuilders is also a Nordberg Mobile Screen Line distributor.

Eagle Crusher Co., Galion, Ohio, has announced a new website that provides detailed information on the Eagle UltraMax and Stedman lines of impactors, crushers and screening systems.

At the site, www.eaglecrusher.com, information on different products and models is available, as is information on financial services offered by the company. The new site also includes an online parts quoting and ordering feature that automatically tracks past parts sales for each customer, thus streamlining the reordering process.