ZF has officially taken over the industrial gears and wind turbine gearbox business from Bosch Rexroth AG. Approximately 1,200 employees at the Witten, Beijing, and Lake Zurich, Illinois, locations will join the technology company. The various product lines will be brought together in the new ZF Industrial Gears business unit based in Witten, Germany. The company is also strengthening its wind turbine gearbox business.
“With the newly created Industrial Gears business unit, we intend to get things moving on a large scale,” said ZF Chief Executive Officer Dr. Stefan Sommer. “We are extending our portfolio with large transmissions for industrial applications and mobile machinery to tunnel drilling machines and 600-ton mining excavators. The product range will also be extended in the Wind Power Technology business unit with gearboxes for turbines generating up to 8 MW.”
With the transaction, ZF is taking over the two production locations of Bosch Rexroth AG in Witten (North Rhine Westphalia, Germany) with almost 900 employees and in Beijing with approximately 300 employees, as well as the service location in Lake Zurich with 15 employees.
Two newly founded companies will be added to the Industrial Gears business unit as ZF Industrieantriebe Witten GmbH and ZF Powertrain Systems (Beijing) Co., Ltd. Witten is the headquarters for the business unit, which is not only home to administration and production, but also to the development and sales departments for large gearbox technologies, including industrial gears and wind turbine gearboxes. Witten is also the production location of ZF’s existing wind power technology business unit that is headquartered in Lommel, Belgium. At the Beijing location, gearboxes for ZF’s wind power segment are being produced, and as a result, the company is further extending its presence in the important wind gearbox market in China.
ZF appointed Christoph Kainzbauer, an experienced manager in the field of large gearbox technology, to head up the Industrial Gears business unit. He was previously responsible for global sales of Bosch Rexroth’s large gearbox segment. The new business unit includes product lines for transmissions for mining applications and large construction machinery, transmissions for offshore and marine applications, transmissions for industrial plants and equipment, and for cableways.
“We see ideal future opportunities for the industrial technology division, especially in wind power technology,” said Wilhelm Rehm, who is responsible for corporate materials management and industrial technology on the ZF management board. “Strengthening ZF’s non-automotive segment is an important objective of our long-term corporate strategy. We are supplementing our industrial technology portfolio optimally while also opening up access to new markets and customer groups.”
The two companies have agreed not to disclose the purchase price. In 2014, Bosch Rexroth generated sales of approximately £300 million with the large gearbox business. In the same year, ZF generated roughly 12 percent of its group sales with the industrial technology division in which the company bundles its off-road activities. This figure should rise over the long term.
— Source: ZF
For more information,
go to www.zf.com.
