Cronimet reports positive 2021 results

The Karlsruhe, Germany-based stainless steel recycling firm Cronimet Group says it concluded its 40th anniversary year 2021 “very successfully,” including by earning operating income before interest and depreciation of more than 100 million euros ($114 million).

Calling itself “the world market leader,” Cronimet adds that it “has come through the turbulent times very well and was able to further consolidate its position as number one in the industry.”

In a news release summarizing its 2021, Cronimet says it “has been working new business areas that–docked to the core business of metal recycling–are intended to further broaden the company’s business base.”

Those include processing metal sludges near Leipzig, Germany, by its subsidiary Cronimet Envirotec; the processing of a tungsten stockpile with approximately 12 million tons of tungsten ore tailings from a closed mine in Australia; and the recycling of cobalt and nickel for the production of batteries for electric vehicles.

“What has always distinguished us have been our employees, their expertise and their flexibility,” says Jürgen Pilarsky, CEO of Cronimet Holding GmbH. “That and our partnership-based relationships within our industry, which have grown after more than 40 years, have also enabled us and continue to enable us to recognize such opportunities as they arise and then to take advantage of them to secure the future of our company.”

Regarding social responsibility, the company says in 2021 it made investments in solar energy and e-mobility, not only in the vehicle fleet but also on the sites themselves. “We are convinced the topic of sustainability has become second nature to all our employees, so we are very confident we will also achieve our goal of being climate-neutral in 2030,” says Chief Financial Officer Bernhard Kunsmann.

“We have signed a voluntary commitment according to which there should always be at least one woman on our holding company’s management board,” adds Annette Gartner, the managing director responsible for human resources at Cronimet.

Also in 2021, Jürgen Pilarsky, son of company founder and former Cronimet Holding GmbH CEO Günter Pilarsky, took over the majority share in the family-owned company.

Another restructuring at the highest management level will follow early in 2022, the firm says. Oliver Kleinhempel has left Cronimet’s management team “for personal reasons,” though he will remain with the company “and in the future will devote himself even more strongly and operationally to his previous areas of responsibility of raw materials, processing and business development, as well as our businesses in Asia and Australia,” the company states.

"We respect Oliver Kleinhempel’s decision and are also very pleased that he will remain with the Cronimet Group. I know that he will continue to bring the same high level of commitment to his areas of responsibility, and I look forward to a continued very successful collaboration,” Jürgen Pilarsky says.

Looking ahead, Cronimet says it expects a continuation of “the good developments” of 2021 in the first quarter of this year. For the second quarter, it foresees “a high utilization of the customers’ [stainless melt shop] capacities, [so] management assumes the planning for the entire year will be achieved.”

Cronimet, founded in 1980, now has more than 70 subsidiaries and more than 1,500 employees worldwide.