27 Jan 2023
As planned, Rheinmetall has officially transferred its large-bore pistons production to Koncentra Verkstads AB (KVAB) of Gothenburg, Sweden. In October 2022 Rheinmetall announced the sale, which reflects the Düsseldorf tech group’s strategic reorientation. Following the legal review by the relevant authorities, the closing took place with retroactive effect on 1 January 2023. At the same time, Rheinmetall continues to press ahead with the sale of further parts of its pistons production operations, especially small-bore pistons. In doing so, Rheinmetall is pursuing its strategic objective of focusing primarily on new technologies and alternative drive systems in its civil sector activities.
On 24 October 2022 Rheinmetall and KVAB signed a share purchase agreement to this effect. The sales contract covers Rheinmetall’s complete large-bore pistons organization, including three production plants in Germany, the USA and China, as well as the steel pistons line of the small-bore pistons factory in Marinette, Wisconsin, USA.
The sale is in line with Rheinmetall’s strategic reorientation, which began in 2021 and is intended, among other things, to scale back the Group’s business in components for the internal combustion engine. Rheinmetall has now achieved its goal of placing its large-bore pistons business in good hands. The KVAB group of companies knows the market for large engines very well and wants to invest in the long term. KVAB sees the company’s highly skilled workforce as its most important capital and has stressed its intention of taking over the entire staff.
KVAB runs its companies as autonomous, standalone units with a separate organization, and thus places great emphasis on working with the existing management team. Going forward, the company “KS Large Bore Pistons” will retain the Kolbenschmidt and KS brands, meaning that little will change in the way it presents itself outwardly. A new company has been formed for the German plant, KS Large Bore Pistons Germany GmbH; the remaining two companies, KS Large Bore Pistons LLC in the USA and KSLP China Co. Ltd in China, will be transferred unchanged.
