MTX GROUP MAGAZINE 2022 ENG

Dear business partners, colleagues, and readers, I am delighted you’ve found a few minutes of your time for this issue of our group magazine. Last year, I wrote about the difficult challenges that await Czech and European society. I had no idea how relevant that would turn out to be.

Russian aggression in Ukraine changed geopolitics and our industry overnight. Hard times await us all, and years of abundance will now be followed by a sharp recession in all sectors. Recent months are proof that we set out on the right path a few years ago. The path to independence and high diversification.

It is clear that traditional industry is entering a difficult period, which I believe only businesses that have started to modernize, automate, innovate and undergo a fundamental strategic transformation, can handle. I believe we are doing well in this regard. Last year, MTX Group had record financial results and we expect them to be even higher this year. That means we can make meaningful investments. We want to invest heavily in energy self-sufficiency and the use of renewable sources, new technology for using secondary materials, alternative sources for gas and hydrogen production, and modern data centers. We are mainly investing in our employees, as well as to increase our production capacity, modernize our plants, carry out research and development, innovation, digitization, and environmental protection.

Our people drive us forward and thanks to them, we know we will make it through this together. I greatly value the bond we all have as a group.

I would like to thank everyone who contributes to making us better every day and I believe reading about our activities, successes, and stories will be attractive and inspiring.

Personally, I am inspired and motivated by stories of successful people. I try to apply this to all of our group activities, and I believe everyone shares this motivation.

I wish you a pleasant reading,

Petr Otava Chairman of the Board & CEO, MTX Group

MTX Group Magazine

Table of Contents

12 MTX Group → Group strategy and investments with Miroslav Záhorec and David Bečvář

22 METALIMEX → Interview with new CCO, Daniel Trnka

26 AL INVEST → Energy storage systems and coolers from Břidličná

32 OKK → Pavel Woznica in his new executive role

40 Czech Mill → A new product in the portfolio

42 Povrly Copper Industries → Changes in this copper-processing company

46 ICE → 3D concrete printing revolutionizes construction and architecture

50 Kopřivná → Chefs rely on fresh, local ingredients

52 Technologie a řemesla → A look inside the plants in Břidličná, Povrly, and Kamenice

64 Lidé a kultura → The four pillars of employee education and development

68 Strojmetal Aluminium Forging → Forewoman combines empathy with efficiency

72 IT innovation → How digitalization connects MTX Group companies

76 Environmental, Social a Governance → Responsibility is our core value

80 Heritage → The history of OKK Koksovny

MTX Group across the Czech Republic

MTX Group is an important industrial, commercial, and production holding. Our activities are focused on management, financing, strategy, and the coordination of all our companies. Take a look at our operations in 2022.

Povrly Copper Industries

Traditional manufacturer of rolled and pressed copper and brass products for industrial applications, construction, the metallurgical industry, and domestic and global markets.

224 employees CZK 2 2bn turnover

PCI Trading

Export license holder for the distribution of brass industrial applications for the Czech Republic and the EU.

2 employees CZK 708m turnover

METALIMEX

Trading company focused mainly on commodity trading. One of the largest trading companies in Central Europe.

125 employees CZK 31 5bn turnover

DC Infrastructure Services

Data Computing Power Sale

Two new companies founded to build modern data centers. They focus on safe data and use Czech and Slovak expertise, with the potential to expand into sectors such as computer graphics, artificial intelligence, and blockchain.

TAPA Tábor

Leading Czech flexible packaging manufacturer and supplier for the food industry and for non-food products, animal feed, industry, and households.

209 employees CZK 1 1bn turnover

METALIMEX Deutschland

German-based reseller of products from OKK and Czech Mill. Focuses on the German, Dutch, Belgian, Luxembourg, and British markets.

3 employees CZK 3 3bn turnover

Strojmetal Singen GmbH

This company makes and sells parts forged from aluminum alloys to the automotive and transport industry.

18 employees CZK 2 8bn turnover

Strojmetal Aluminium Forging

This company manufactures and diagnoses parts forged from aluminum alloys for the automotive and transport industry.

506 employees CZK 2 6bn turnover

Employment and turnover figures are from 2021.

AMEX Coal

Polish company offering complex services in the import, export and storage of coke and coal.

3 employees CZK 143m turnover

SKI AREÁL KOPŘIVNÁ

This resort gives you and your family the space and equipment you need for active relaxation. It has the best ski slope and bike park in the area. It also houses wellness and private function facilities.

62 employees CZK 42 3m turnover

AL INVEST Břidličná

The biggest Czech rolled-aluminum intermediate materials producer, with a sizable presence across Europe focusing on the flexible packaging, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and automotive sectors.

745 employees CZK 4bn turnover

Czech Mill

A developing modern company with cutting-edge technology for producing multidust from anthracite. It is currently expanding its portfolio through "Eco ash 450", a cement and concrete additive. Also, it’s intensively working on producing multidusts from biological components.

26 employees CZK 307m turnover

OKK Koksovny

The biggest European foundry coke producer which also provides a wide range of different types of coke for metallurgical, special metallurgical, heating, and other purposes.

494 employees CZK 5 9bn turnover

ICE Industrial Services

This company specializes in designing, upgrading and manufacturing new machines mainly for the automotive, mechanical engineering, metallurgical, and woodworking industries, among others. It is a European leader in industrial automation.

157 employees CZK 310m turnover

Scale 1: 1,235,500 12,5

2021 in a nutshell

In 2021, MTX Group achieved record economic results. The group made CZK 54bn in unconsolidated revenues and CZK 2.6bn in EBITDA. This success is mainly the result of product portfolio diversification and the growth of individual member companies. 1

20

group companies

2,500+

54

2.6

billion CZK unconsolidated revenue

employees

billion CZK EBITDA

MTX Group news

We invest in building modern data centers

MTX Group and Invictus Development make joint investments with the aim of modernizing Czech industry, focusing on secure data. Two new companies have emerged on the Czech data center market: DC Infrastructure Services and Data Computing Power Sale. We hold shares in both of them. The goal of the CZK 1 billion investment is to increase data security and ensure long-term computing power availability for both internal and external use. We have built three data centers in Bohemia, and we plan to build another two in the Moravian-Silesian Region. They are designed and built by leading Czech and Slovak experts, who specialize in high-efficiency advanced cooling systems, whilst our own in-house team takes care of server maintenance, building, and upgrading.

Coking coal from Poland until 2028

METALIMEX, an MTX Group member, has entered into a contract with Polish company Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa S.A. (JSW) to supply coking coal. Thanks to this contract, valid from April 2022 to December 2028, METALIMEX will be able to provide coking coal for OKK Koksovny. The estimated value is CZK 12 billion. “This contract means we have secured coking coal for OKK Koksovny until 2028, which is an important step in ensuring stable production, especially these days.” explained Petr Labuzík, a member of the METALIMEX Board of Directors.

Voluntary agreement with the region reduces negative environmental impact

Last June, our member company, AL INVEST Břidličná, entered into an agreement with the Moravian-Silesian Region, aiming to reduce its environmental impact. We have already been achieving this for several years now, but this agreement for the period of 2021 to 2024 is exceptional in terms of the number of investments and CO2 levels to which we have committed. In total, we are investing almost CZK 70 million in environmental protection and modernization for 2022.

"AL INVEST Břidličná is one of the largest companies in the Moravian-Silesian Region. We are aware of our social responsibility and, in addition to our business activities, which have created 750 jobs, we also go beyond our legal obligations when it comes to environmental protection and sustainable development within our region,” commented David Bečvář, Chairman of the Board at AL INVEST.

Strategy and investment: Sustainability is everything

MTX Group is doing things its own way. It is seeking out synergies and focusing on sustainable growth. Profit is essential for growth, but it’s not looking to make fast and easy money. It’s consistently developing its companies, has its own management system and makes thoughtful and meaningful investments, bringing long-term stability.

AWhether it's investments, acquisitions, digitization, or recruitment, MTX Group may seem somewhat conservative. And, in a way, it is. The group doesn’t chase trends or fast acquisitions. It approaches almost everything with a great deal of consideration and looks for long-term benefits. “We’re not trying to be the biggest entity in any given field. We’re looking for ways to efficiently work as a whole and manage risks together,” says MTX Group CFO and COO, Miroslav Záhorec, adding: “We drive progress and develop industry.”

This strategy has proven itself over the years and brings the group long-term stability and the ability to deal with unexpected fluctuations, which are very common in modern times. But the group is not short on innovation and interesting new developments: its member companies are leaders in their fields and all focus on permanent sustainability, which people nowadays associate with environmental protection. “We have always focused on sustainability, it’s in our DNA,” says the MTX Group CSO, David Bečvář.

We place the highest demands not only on ourselves but also on our technology suppliers. This is the only way we can keep developing and stay competitive. We will continue to develop further; nothing can stop us.

What are the foundations of MTX Group?

Miroslav Záhorec [MZ]: The group developed out of METALIMEX, a trading company that has always worked on its commercial positions all over the world. Traditionally, METALIMEX trades non-ferrous metals and other commodities, which is why the group gradually expanded into production.

David Bečvář [DB]: Simply put, the group started looking for synergies and new opportunities. We know how to buy aluminum because we sell aluminum products from other companies, so, logically, we started looking for companies we can supply aluminum to and then sell their products. The same goes for copper, brass, coal and other commodities. We seized the opportunity and started integrating companies into the group which had potential and were important for our portfolio.

Text: Luděk Vokáč, photo: Barbora Mráčková

How does MTX Group view its development?

[DB] I think we enjoy and are driven by the need to create. This shapes our investments: we want to create and move forward. We want every investment to reap long-term benefits and make sense in this regard. We never wanted to acquire every packaging company and become a packaging monopoly. It was never about having 50 companies in our portfolio. Our investments, both internal and external, have to be compatible with business, sales and risk management. In principle, we’re not interested in acquiring a company that produces the same product as our companies. There’s no room for synergy there. On the other hand, integrating a company that produces a different product in the same field, perhaps even for the same customer, is a completely different story.

The group wants to establish a management system and find mutually beneficial solutions. It’s about sharing their experience and helping each other. In some cases, we don’t just share our experience. We also share services or resources. Sometimes, we compete a bit to push each other forward. MTX Group and METALIMEX help our companies navigate the market. It helps them to survive and prosper. Take current inflation rates, for example. We have all heard about companies failing to reflect high overheads in product prices. Thanks to the way we operate, we are fine.

[MZ] I want to stress that our goal is not buying as many companies as possible. We are open to acquiring new companies for our portfolio, but we don’t do it often. Our main goal is creating the conditions for innovation and growth for our existing companies. We want each of our companies to have their own goals, strategy, development and investments. The key to successful investments is the long-term reasoning behind them. We are committed to long-term sustainability.

And even though some people don’t want to hear it, the only parameter for long-term sustainability is profit. If you have long-term profit and are in good financial health, you have a future. If you don’t make a profit and your financial health isn’t good, you don’t have a future. It’s as simple as that.

However, we are willing to heavily reinvest our profits. For example, in 2020, the group’s EBITDA was CZK 1.4 billion, of which we poured CZK 1.22 billion into investments. In 2021, our EBITDA reached CZK 2.586 billion and CZK 1 billion went into investments. This year, our EBITDA is forecast to exceed CZK 3 billion and we plan to invest over CZK 1 billion again. And these are true development investments, not just maintenance investments. A general rule of thumb for a company to be in the black is investing the same amount as its write-offs. Plus inflation. Only then you start investing in development. These development investments can go into individual companies, into external acquisitions, or towards new projects. We are always looking for ways to diversify our portfolio.

We can't do everything online. Investments and innovation require our physical presence.

You said that the companies within the group should complement each other.

What does that mean specifically?

[DB] It’s quite simple. Since METALIMEX trades aluminum, it makes sense to find a company that processes it. In our case, it’s Strojmetal Aluminium Forging and AL INVEST Břidličná. Both of these companies complement each other perfectly: they both work with aluminum and even supply the same industry – the automotive industry. Yet, they each produce something different. Strojmetal produces forgings and AL INVEST produces plates, sheets, and packaging. They have different production programs and processes. That being said, you can also find companies with the same processes which complement each other. In our case, it’s AL INVEST and Měď Povrly, recently renamed Povrly Copper Industries. One works with aluminum, the other with brass, but both focus on foundry and forming. These companies have a similar supplier base, experience, maintenance, and so on. We always look for similar synergies when acquiring new companies and investing internally.

Do you prefer to invest in new companies or in the development of your own?

[DB] It’s not about what we prefer, but what makes sense at that moment in time. Also, there are very few external acquisitions that are truly meaningful for us. There are certain areas, such as non-ferrous metals and flexible packaging, where we continually evaluate acquisition opportunities. We evaluate several opportunities each month, but only a few are the right fit. They need to meet a wide range of criteria: complementing our existing portfolio, fitting into our development strategy, having a good location, and being the right size. A company with a turnover of CZK 50 million is too small for us, and CZK 50 billion is too big. That is why we usually systematically invest within the group, developing our existing companies. We call this internal acquisition, and the goal is to gain market share, create new products, and enter new markets.

[MZ] Acquiring an existing company seems easier, and maybe it is. But on the other hand, there are certain risks attached. It’s easy to acquire an overpriced company, which might put the group at risk. We are trying to be financially healthy when it comes to debt, which is something acquisitions inevitably create. It’s much more responsible to develop our existing companies, although it’s more complicated in terms of long-term management. But that’s what the group is for. To establish management systems in each company, to support them, and help them make investments which will reap long-term benefits for them. We can also invest into completely new projects, of course.

How much do the companies within MTX Group have a say in their own development?

[MZ] The member companies are completely free to establish their strategic plan. It's up to them, the group doesn’t dictate how they should grow and what to do. We don’t dictate our companies’ customer base. Instead, we create conditions for them to come up with an idea of how to convert a customer and the group then provides support based on its broad market knowledge. We may give our companies certain pieces of advice, but their development, productivity, and competitiveness is in their hands. When a member company needs investment and if it meets our rules for long-term sustainability and returns the investment, we don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t give it to them. Our companies already have a well-established mechanism for this. They have a three-year strategic plan, which also includes an annually updated investment plan, which they submit to the MTX Group Board of Directors for approval. Each year, they take into account their current operation, the market situation, and their financial health. Then, they gradually adjust the direction in which they’re headed.

Can you give an example of some recent investments that demonstrate this strategy?

We plan to invest into solar energy and data centers.

Sustainability is our primary motivation because it means profit.

[DB] There are many examples. In Povrly, we started producing brass cups that are used as the intermediate material in ammunition production. Before that, we had only supplied arms manufacturers with sheets and strips. Cups are more complex and difficult to make but it has added value and made sense for us. Since we produce this intermediate product ourselves, we don’t have to deal with a lot of unnecessary transport. We keep the production waste and can reuse it ourselves instead of getting it from a supplier. This philosophy also led us to introducing laser cutting in Břidličná. But we’re not stopping there. Again, in Břidličná, for example, we see potential in the production of foils for electric vehicles.

We invest heavily in new ideas. Take ICE Industrial Services. We decided to allocate part of its resources and engineers to the generation and systematic preparation of new ideas for start-ups. This resulted in 3D printed concrete buildings. We will definitely develop this concept further.

[MZ] Strojmetal is a similar story. We started producing forgings. Then, we added machining and later also the pressing of other stabilizing components, so instead of simple forgings, we are now producing a finished part that doesn’t have to travel all over Europe to be worked on. The important thing is that this helps us develop our expertise and learn something new.

We have recently begun investing in energy commodities and data centers. We are planning to construct our own photovoltaic power plants. Yes, on the one hand, we are jumping on a trend, but on the other hand, it will help us achieve long-term sustainability for our business. And not just by generating our own electricity and becoming less dependent on external energy supplies and market prices, but also by expanding our scope and creating new synergies. The same goes for data centers. Our plants, or sometimes even the brownfields we rent, provide a great space for housing data centers.Plus, we will power them with our own electricity. Also, we need solid IT facilities.

Such development requires hiring new employees. How are you trying to attract them?

[MZ] I'll start broadly. People these days have become accustomed in many ways to the fact that life is quite simple. I don’t mean it in a bad way, but when we were young and we broke something, we couldn’t go to the store and buy another one. We had to fix it. But nobody would give us a manual, we had to figure it out on our own. In many ways, this helped us progress and gave us a lot of experience. Today, people are used to buying things and not knowing how they really work. We want to show what industry is based on and its background. We want to demonstrate our insatiable desire and devotion to developing it. This is how we try to motivate people. Yes, they will have to work hard, but they will also see the results of their work, which will make them happy. We are also moving forward thanks to our cutting-edge technology suppliers. We are very demanding of them so we can keep on growing and remain competitive.

Our recruitment process starts at elementary schools. We want to show kids and their parents that working in industry is something they can enjoy. That it’s not just that image of “dirty” industry that we all know from the past. On the contrary, modern industry stands on tradition and basic physical principles, but also utilizes modern fields such as cybernetics, robotics, automation, digitization, and so on. We also attract recruits as a result of the experience we’ve amassed. As mentioned above, we have gained a lot of experience over our career, and we are willing to share it. There are no strings attached to this, because the more we give them, the better they will become and the more likely it is they will want to stay with us. But most importantly, people need to enjoy their job. Thanks to the size of the group, people can easily change jobs within the group. Not only in the Czech Republic, but also abroad.

[DB] Yes, not many people in the most recent generation want to work just because they have to or because it’s something you’re supposed to do after you graduate. Our task is to create conditions in which they will enjoy their work. On the one hand, this means we have to work with modern technology because young people like it. But we can’t make their job into a video game. We need people who understand what’s under the hood, so to speak. That's why we want to promote industry from an early age. Someone still needs to physically cast aluminum or brass. The metal flows somewhere and someone needs to process it. These days, you can control this process almost like a videogame, but you also need to understand the underlying principles. And ideally, you need to enjoy them.

In addition to digitization, another trend is remote work. What’s your take on that?

[MZ] Even if we ignore the fact we are an industrial holding and can’t make anything without on-site workers, we are somewhat conservative in this regard. It’s based on our experience. Just like with digitalization, you shouldn’t go overboard with remote work. That has been the approach of the group’s management for the past two years or so. Despite all the Covid measures, or perhaps because of them, we were constantly driving to our factories. And you could see they were happy to be in this together. Everyone was working under tremendous pressure and having management on their side helped a lot. It seems to me that people who stayed working on-site are now more successful than those that didn’t. This doesn’t mean we don’t have any remote meetings, of course. However, we try to use this tool purposefully and reasonably.

[DB] When you need creativity, working from home doesn’t cut it. Without interacting with your colleagues, you won’t grow and move forward. That’s something digital interactions can’t replace. Empty offices made sense in terms of social distancing. Now, it may make sense in terms of saving energy costs, but in the long run, this means companies losing ideas. When you divide people, you limit their potential for creativity. I don’t want people to think I am against remote work. I just like it when people create something. That is what our group is about.

Risk management in an unpredictable area

Trading non-ferrous metals, steel and solid fuels is a very unpredictable industry. “During my career, I have read a number of price forecasts from big analytical companies. But what actually happened was very different,” says Daniel Trnka, the new METALIMEX Chief Commercial Officer, explaining how the market can be difficult.

METALIMEX is MTX Group’s flagship company. It buys raw input materials and sells finished products through member companies. Its goal is giving the other companies the most stable operation conditions possible by securing stable prices for input materials as well as stable sales of the finished products. The problem is that prices of input materials are highly volatile. “When bank analysts and big consulting companies estimate price trends, they usually can’t know how fast and intensely they will play out,” says the new METALIMEX Chief Commercial Officer, Daniel Trnka. This volatility has increased even more over the past few years. In his sector, he’s tasked to minimize the risks arising from this volatility, among other things. This means having a clear picture of the risks and constantly negotiating with suppliers and customers.

Does the commodity market have any regularities at all?

Yes, despite the aforementioned instability, the commodity market has some regularities. Thanks to my professional experience, I know every commodity behaves and reacts differently. For example, coal prices can be the most volatile. It’s not uncommon to change to multiples of the original value in a very short time. Metal prices change less dramatically. Copper, for example, is influenced by green energy and the fact that it’s so difficult to increase production capacity to meet demand. Primary aluminum is very sensitive to changes in energy costs. Last year, this meant, despite having the highest market price in history, some European companies had to stop production, which caused a production shortfall of about 900,000 tons of aluminum.

Are these dramatic fluctuations the result of COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine?

In a way, yes. There had been signals that the economy was overheating before, but then Covid stopped the economy. When it started again, everyone was trying to make up for the shortfall. Also, people changed the way they do business. Now, it’s done remotely. I used to meet business partners every day and now everything is done online. Sure, some things are more efficient this way, but establishing new business relationships or having technical meetings and brainstorming with multiple people doesn’t work this way. We have had to adapt to this. Now that measures aren’t as strict, we are strengthening some newly established business relationships. Then, the war in Ukraine started. It changed some of our supply chains but also already elevated energy costs.

What can you actually do in such cases?

Our work stays the same, it just gets more intense. Simply put, it’s all about buying and selling. Our job is to ensure the member companies have the best conditions possible. That means getting commodities for a price that allows them to make competitive products efficiently. In terms of sales, we need to be able to navigate in a market full of strong competition. Now more than ever, it’s crucial to know the obligations and associated risks arising from our contractual relations, and to eliminate them. On top of all that, we use traditional tools such as hedging commodity prices through the London Metal Exchange.

Text: Luděk Vokáč, photo: Barbora Mráčková

Despite being so difficult, do you have any predictions for how things will change from now on?

The market is highly unpredictable, and we have to be prepared for almost anything. On the other hand, there are some regularities. For example, when interest rates rise, as they do now, it causes commodity and stock prices to fall. That is currently happening, so the market is behaving predictably, in this regard. But the question is what will follow. China has a strong influence on the price of commodities, but due to their strict Covid measures, they have not been able to fulfill their economic plans, and it’s possible that they will want to catch up in the last quarter, which could change commodity prices. Nobody knows if China will be able to do that or if they will introduce new strict measures, which would further slow their economy. Besides, we can continue to expect pressure from increasing energy costs, which will continue to drive inflation, especially in Europe. Therefore, in general, it depends on which scenario prevails. However, I expect inflation to keep rising due to increasing energy costs.

What

does it mean for your customers and suppliers?

For our customers and suppliers, this certainly means higher demands on the stability of their business partners. In such turbulent times, when constant change is the only certainty, working with a stable, financially strong, tried-and-tested partner is a key prerequisite for success. And that’s what METALIMEX is for our business partners.

Since June 1st of this year, he has been the Chief Commercial Officer at METALIMEX. He has worked in various sales positions at MTX Group since 2016, after transferring from OKD. There, he gained his first experience of trading in energy and coking coal. “At METALIMEX, I literally started from scratch. But thanks to working in the fuel division, where I started, I got to know the ins and outs of the business,” he says. In time, he was tasked with securing supplies of coking coal from overseas for OKK Koksovny. His task was, among other things, to eliminate the risks related to the fluctuation of coal prices. Gradually, he added other commodities to his portfolio and became acquainted with other areas of trading within METALIMEX. In 2020, for example, he and his colleague Dimitris Kristalas reshaped the way PCI trades products. At the end of the year, he took over primary aluminum trading and hedging non-ferrous material prices on the London Metal Exchange. Therefore, over time, he learned the risks and regularities associated with most commodities that METALIMEX works with, which made him a great candidate for the renewed position of chief commercial officer.

What challenges await METALIMEX in the near future?

A lot of our previously established connections are no longer working for us. We need to learn how to deal with these fluctuations and changes. This mainly means hedging commodity prices through commodity brokers, valuation using indexes, and closing back-toback contracts. But also finding new ways such as recycling. We have placed a great deal of faith in that in the group. Recycling and a circular economy are the future in order to maintain heavy industry in Europe. MTX Group is working on several investment projects that will significantly impact the size of our portfolio. I see great potential in strengthening supplier relationships and growing our market share with clients outside the group.

Daniel Trnka

Coal prices can be the most volatile. They can easily become multiples of their original value.

Energy storage systems and coolers from Břidličná

The aluminum semi-finished products by AL INVEST Břidličná are used to make a wide array of products. Among them are fuel tanks for trucks along with all types of coolers, including those used in cars. Their production is very specific, the manufacture of foils for coolers even requires the use of unusual technology.

ZAluminum foils, strips, sheets, plates and laser cutouts are transformed into various products. And all of this is done in Břidličná. The specific composition and production process of each semi-finished product determines how they will be transformed into a finished product. Whether it’s packaging materials, foils for finstocks or sheets, each product has unique prerequisites.

For example, the way finstock foils for car coolers are produced in AL INVEST Břidličná is rather unusual. These foils are made using continuous casting, which is not especially common. Typical continuous casting is not suitable for producing thin foils that are then soldered into cooling-medium pipes. During continuous casting, a relatively thin coil is produced, which is then cold rolled into thin sheets.

Demanding technology is more efficient

And therein lies the pitfall of the technology in general. “In order to roll the coils, we have to regulate temperature during continuous casting in a way so that all the melt elements solidify simultaneously. The material has to drop several hundreds of degrees Celsius on a production area of just a couple of centimeters,” explains David Jaklin, Senior Sales Manager at METALIMEX for Business Unit FOILS & AUTOMOTIVE. While this is not so difficult in food packaging production, it’s much more difficult with high-alloy (with high content of additives) aluminum for automotive or construction. The “8079 aluminum alloy” with high drawability is a great example of this. Drawability is something continuously cast products don’t have. “But we are able to make products using continuous casting that have it, perhaps even more than hot-rolled products do,” says Jaklin. The clients use this alloy to make plate heat exchangers for heat recuperation units used in industrial applications as well as in households. Another very specific alloy is Zirkal (modified 3003 alloy), which

allows us to make thin foils for passenger-car coolers. Products made from this alloy are then shipped to clients who supply car coolers on the Volkswagen group’s MQB platform. The third type of AL INVEST finstock foil is made from the 8011 alloy. These foils are used for rotary heat exchangers (again, used for HVAC), which require the material to be very strong and thin at the same time.

“Hot-rolled aluminum can be rolled as thin as 0.5 millimeters, but continuous-cast finstock aluminum can be rolled as thin as 0.05 millimeters for automotive use and up to 0.035 millimeters for HVACs,” David Jaklin explains. Having such a thin material has several benefits. Using approximately the same amount of input material, you get a foil with greater surface area, so using it is more efficient. Also, coolers with thin fins are lighter, which helps cars reduce their carbon footprint and energy consumption.

The foils from Břidličná have made their way into state-of-the art coolers used in the most demanding of situations. “Coolers made from our materials have been used in Bugatti cars and in Formula 1,” boasts Jaklin. “Our R&D department, headed by Mr. Dvořák, plays a big role in the success of our foils,” he remarked in praise of his colleagues.

Cutouts can save costs

The automotive industry also uses our hot-rolled plates and strips. Our clients, such as Magna or SAG, use these products to make fuel tanks for Mercedes, MAN, Scania, Volvo, DAF, and Iveco trucks and buses. Hot rolling is more expensive and, unlike continuous casting, the metal isn’t cast directly into coils, but is first cast into slabs and then hot-rolled into coils.

AL INVEST Břidličná uses this to make cast plates, which can then be made into laser cutouts. That’s something we’ve been doing since 2020. “Our clients demand high drawability, so the sheets are deep-drawable. We are the only ones who can provide this level of quality for our clients,” says David Nalevajka, another member of our D3 Aluminum METALIMEX division sales team.

Car coolers must corrode

While most heat exchangers should never corrode, car coolers are a different story. The outer fins which are exposed to the elements are supposed to corrode in a controlled way, so they corrode earlier than the pipes. “The cooler will gradually decrease cooling efficiency long before the cooler pipes corrode and the fluids begin to leak,” David Jaklin offers an explanation of this unusual safeguard.

AL INVEST Břidličná and recycling

Aluminum is an easily recyclable metal. AL INVEST Břidličná is trying to always increase the amount of recycled materials (aluminum scrap). But it’s actually not an easy process. Usually, the amount of recycled materials in a product is determined by the customer. Until recently, the food industry required pure primary aluminum because of strict requirements on the health and safety impact of the material, which used to be guaranteed only when using pure primary aluminum. The recycled material can contain various undesirable impurities that can either change the physical properties of the product or mean that the product does not meet health safety requirements. At the same time, determining the amount of recycled material in aluminum can be rather difficult because aluminum scrap can be very diverse and contain many other elements.

However, AL INVEST Břidličná has developed a way to utilize recycled aluminum. Car manufacturers have increased their demand for recycled aluminum, but so has the food industry. All companies are trying to find ways to reduce their carbon footprint. “Using normal aluminum produces 8 kilograms of carbon dioxide and using so-called ‘green aluminum’ (made using renewable resources) produces only 4 kilograms. Using recycled aluminum, however, produces a negligible amount of carbon,” says David Jaklin, MTX Group Sales Manager. The greatest amount of emissions is released when mining bauxite and extracting the metal from it. Recycling means you don’t have to do that.

“On average, our regular foils contain up to 40% recycled material. However, we are also working on a new material called PurAl that contains up to 100% recycled materials,” says David Jaklin, explaining where AL INVEST stands in this regard. Making products with a high percentage of recycled materials means we can acquire new clients. Ensuring that the products with high recycled material content have the right properties is not the only challenge the AL INVEST team faces. It is also important to make sure the finished material behaves in the same way as its non-recycled counterpart during the production process. The key to this is carefully sorting the scrap metal, as well as the way it’s processed.

The laser cutouts AL INVEST makes from its sheets are another way we are improving production efficiency and reducing carbon emissions. “Supplying our clients with cutouts means less waste (tons of scrap metal) being transported all across Europe and back. “Scrap metal that would normally be produced by the tank manufacturers is produced in our factory. That allows us to recycle the material without moving it across large distances,” Nalevajka says, explaining the benefits of the cutouts. AL INVEST produces a semi-finished product with added value, all whilst saving money and reducing emissions. This alone saves 7.5 tons of carbon dioxide each year.

Interestingly, our clients also demand that the sheets used for fuel tanks look good on the surface. “We have to make sure the sheets aren’t scratched on the surface or have any other surface defects,” Nalevajka explains. But he thinks this demand is somewhat paradoxical. “You can probably imagine what a fuel tank in a truck looks like after a few kilometers. Reducing the demands on visual quality would make production more efficient," says Nalevajka

PThe portfolio is complementary

The upside of having a broad portfolio is that the individual products complement each other. “We’re not dependent on the automotive industry alone,” explains Nalevajka. “During the pandemic, car manufacturers reduced their demand, but flexible packaging and foil manufacturers increased theirs,” adds his colleague Jaklin. Both managers see finstock foils as the future for all types of coolers. “Both fossil-fuel and electric cars need coolers. Also, we have seen increased demand from the construction industry and other areas where heat recovery is a big trend,” Jaklin says.

AL INVEST Břidličná can react to these changes in demand in an agile way. “If necessary, we can reschedule our production program in two weeks to keep operating at full speed,” Jaklin says. Both managers agree this places high demands on all employees, including planning, sales, and production line operators. “Our employees help us a great deal through their conscientious approach. Their experience in this field is invaluable,” Nalevajka said in praise of his team.

is the current share of recycled material in regular foils.

MTX Group products for everyday life

The group makes a wide variety of products that we can see in our daily lives (often in a further processed form). What are they?

AL INVEST Břidličná

We specialize in aluminum semi-finished products, such as:

• Sheets and cutouts that our clients use to make fuel tanks for trucks and buses

• Cooler finstock foils. Not only for passenger cars and trucks but also for air conditioning units for other means of transport (such as trains) or recuperation units in residential, commercial, and industrial buildings.

• Hydrothermal insulation foils

• Molded sheets for roofing, cladding, and other construction applications

• CREALLOY cast plates for use in architecture

TAPA Tábor

Aluminum, plastic, and paper packaging.

• Printed packaging foils made from plastics, aluminum, and paper for specific products in the food industry

• Finished packaging sacks and bags for specific food stuffs and pet food. They are made from different materials, can be transparent or opaque, have different finishes and several means of sealing.

• Bags for machine-packaged bread

• Bags with built-in handles

• Aluminum foil for household and restaurant use; either normal or reinforced for grilling

Strojmetal Aluminium Forging

Expert in producing aluminum forged parts:

• Car chassis parts, especially passenger car suspension parts

• Decorative parts such as door handles, lids and so on

PW

Coke ovens are key for heat production in Ostrava

Coke production is a conservative discipline that may appear to be stagnating in terms of progress. Nevertheless, a number of interesting projects are underway at OKK Koksovny and the company continues to face new challenges. Chief Executive Director, Pavel Woznica, talks about them in the following interview.

Text: Luděk Vokáč, photo: Barbora Mráčková

OKK Koksovny (hereinafter just OKK) has changed management for the first time since it joined MTX Group. After many years, Zdeněk Durčák passes the torch to formal Financial Director Pavel Woznica. He has worked with Zdeněk Durčák since OKK joined MTX Group and then became his successor. Pavel Woznica took over a healthy business but has had to deal with a number of challenges. You took over from Zdeněk Durčák more than a year ago.

What has the year been like for you?

I can’t believe it’s been so long; it feels like it was only yesterday. When I was Financial Director, Zdeněk Durčák and I were on the same page. So, as far as I’m concerned, the main processes and operations were set up well. No big changes needed there. We have always invested in areas that have long-term, practical benefits for us. Our operation is somewhat traditional. Not many trends apply to us, unlike other operations. Take automation, for example. It has experienced a boom in industry, but there’s not much space to use it in our operation, so we don’t invest in it as much as other companies. That being said, we are working on automating and streamlining our office processes, and I think we’re doing OK in this regard. But as far as our production line is concerned, apart from a handful of successful projects, security concerns prevent us from replacing humans with machines. Also, some operations can’t be automated due to their nature. We don’t want to invest in automation just to pat ourselves on our backs, especially if it doesn’t have a positive outcome. That's not how we work. Nevertheless, we are working on new projects that should bring about positive change at OKK.

Can you be more specific?

There are two investments: One to implement technology that will help us eliminate fugitive emissions when distilling benzol. It will make our operation more environmentally friendly. The other investment is in coke sorting, which will make our operation more competitive. We’ll be able to supply coke more efficiently and better meet our clients’ needs. We want to make these major investments before the end of the year. A lot of work has gone into them and they will bring about some changes.

Can you elaborate?

I will start with the benzol distillation. This, of course, has a broader context. We are basically a chemical operation. Producing coke creates a number of chemical byproducts. You could say we are a zerowaste production, if you exclude municipal waste, scrap, and waste generated by repairing our machines. In terms of investments, our aim is to have an as environmentally friendly production process as possible. We invest a lot of money into this each year. We have concluded agreements with the city of Ostrava and the Moravian-Silesian Region, in which we commit to projects and measures around our coking plant that reduce our environmental impact beyond our legal obligations. Social responsibility is our priority. We have recently renewed this agreement with the Moravian-Silesian Region and our agreement with the city of Ostrava ends this year, but it can be extended for three more years. In our agreement with the region, we commit to potentially eliminating fugitive emissions from benzol distillation. The chemical process can release unpleasant odors in the close vicinity of our chemical plant during certain weather conditions. Some time ago, we discovered a company that could supply us with technology that would significantly decrease the amount of fugitive emissions from benzol distillation. It’s still a relatively new technology that uses plasma catalysis to break down benzene into harmless compounds. It has successfully passed testing, so I hope implementing it will help in real-world operations as well. That would help us eliminate the unpleasant odors, as well as reducing our benzene emissions.

And what about the improved coke sorting?

This is an important project that will significantly change the way we make foundry coke and make our production logistics more streamlined, which will strengthen our relationships with our major clients. Each of our clients requires different coke grain sizes. We’ve decided to invest in new technology that sorts foundry coke, which will help us meet our clients’ needs better. We’ve invested around CZK 60 million and it should be finished in the last quarter of this year. Next year, we should be able to offer new coke sorting parameters. Consequently, we will be able to guarantee better and more efficient grain sizes, which will make us more competitive.

Does the war in Ukraine affect you in any way?

What Russia has done to Ukraine is awful. We have actively supported Ukrainian war refugees by contributing CZK 200,000 to buy a van for the Czech Red Cross in Ostrava that will be used to help Ukrainian refugees. Other than that, the conflict hasn’t impacted our operation in any way. We used to have some clients in Ukraine and Russia, and we sometimes used Russian coal before, but it wasn’t anything substantial that can’t be replaced.

How vever, the war has handed us a new set of responsibilities. Our byproduct is coke gas, which can replace natural gas in many ways. We export our coke gas to the Přívoz heating plant, which is part of the Svoboda coking plant belonging to Veolia Energy Czech Republic. Since we import most of our coal from Poland and the USA, we basically make non-Russian gas. We have been supplying coke gas to the heating plant for a long time. It uses our gas to produce steam, which it then distributes back to us, but they also produce heat for households and businesses in Ostrava. Our gas can heat up to a third of all the distribution points in Ostrava. Hence the new responsibility. Since the supply of natural gas is shrouded in uncertainty these days, we have become a reliable gas supplier and our

We will make it through if things get tough.

responsibility is to keep supplying it. So, while many industrial enterprises have to limit their operation because of smog, we have to stay operational to keep supplying as much gas as possible. If there’s a lot of smog, we can limit coke manipulation and other auxiliary activities that sometimes release a lot of dust into the air. But production can’t stop if we’re to keep supplying gas.

How can you guarantee this supply?

We have been working with Veolia Energy for a long time. Some time ago, we concluded a new gas supply agreement until 2030, which shows how much we think our supply is going to be in the future. On top of that, the agreement has fixed gas prices, so we help slow inflation a bit, which is currently unprecedentedly high. We can afford to guarantee this because our sister company METALIMEX has signed a new coal supply contract with the largest European coking coal miner, Polish company Jastrzębska Spółka Węglowa. Therefore, we have guaranteed the supply of high-quality coal until 2028. On top of that, we have another long-term contract with a supplier in the USA. Since we have these long-term contracts for our primary input material, we can guarantee our supply of coke gas.

Is logistics a problem in this regard?

Logistics is another big issue. Since logistics has become more and more complicated recently, it’s also become more important. Fortunately, the METALIMEX logistics team has extensive experience in this area and works with important carriers. Last year, logistics was affected by Covid and the health measures introduced to combat it. Now, it is affected by the war in Ukraine. A lot of companies that used to import, move, or export commodities from Russia and Ukraine are now looking for new sources and markets. Traditional logistics routes were not able to handle the strain, which meant a lot of delays and complications. For example, coal from the USA is shipped to Gdansk, which takes two or three weeks. We are getting to a point where get-

Pavel Woznica

Pavel started his career in the procurement, facility and fleet management departments for gas companies. He also worked in a brewery, but in 2008, he returned to the energy sector. That year, he started as a Financial Director at OKD, where he worked until October 2013. After that, he started working for MTX Group in AL INVEST Břidličná, where he was a consultant for process optimization. The same year, the group acquired OKK Koksovny, and Pavel Woznica started working there. “Gradually, I started spending more and more time at OKK, until I finally transferred there,” he says. At the end of 2013, he was in charge of cost control and procurement. When Zdeněk Durčák became the CEO in 2014, Woznica took over as a Financial Director. He stayed in that role until last year when he took over from his predecessor.

ting the coal from Gdansk to our plant takes just as long. We need to take that into account, of course, along with potential complications when supplying products to our customers. Those who have great logistics departments can find alternative routes and arrange them with the carriers. Gdansk is congested, so we had to find an alternative route from the USA to Southern Europe, but capacity is close to reaching its limits there as well. These alternatives understandably make logistics more expensive. However, getting hold of the material is our priority, so we have to accept the increased costs. So far, the increase has been acceptable. Coal and coke prices are still more important for us. Other prices are also important, but not as much.

Separating hydrogen from coke gas

The Technical University of Ostrava is researching how to separate hydrogen from coke gas at our coke plant. “The scientists are looking for a suitable way to separate high-quality hydrogen from our coke gas,” Pavel Woznica explains. The research project has been running since 2020 and if it succeeds and the hydrogen separation is financially viable, it will expand the options for the byproducts in our portfolio.

Why is it mainly about coal and coke prices?

It’s simple – our reprocessing costs weren’t as volatile as other costs. I’m speaking in the past tense because they have significantly increased this year, but that’s something that has happened in all areas of our economy. We still have to invest in repairs. That’s something we can’t cut costs on because it would negatively impact our operation in the future. Besides, even if we significantly cut maintenance, material, and service costs, it would save us only a couple of million crowns a year. But only a slight increase in coal and coke prices, even just a couple of euros, can cost us tens of millions of crowns each quarter. Similarly, our byproducts, such as coke gas, tar, benzol, and ammonium sulfate, are just a couple of percent of our yearly turnover. However, the prices of chemical derivatives have moved in our favor. Of course, it is very difficult to predict how this situation will change. We expect an economic recession, but nobody knows how significant it will be. We are trying to prepare for it but we don’t want to make any rash decisions. When we have good results, we stay humble because we know nothing lasts forever. That being said, I am very confident we will make it through if things get rough.

MTX Group in the eyes of Pavel Woznica

“It may seem that our coke plant doesn’t fit into the MTX Group structure, but that’s what’s great about the group. They know how to find synergies in different areas where other people don’t see them,” Pavel Woznica says. He says the main benefit is that METALIMEX trades all their materials and products. For OKK, this means importing coal and exporting coke. METALIMEX has a wide range of contacts and many years of experience, which means they can get good deals for materials as well as sell products to a wide variety of clients. Thanks to this, the group can evolve dynamically and is particularly strong and stable. “The group’s scope brings stability. It has traditional operations such as OKK, but also automation experts and ICE, who are introducing innovation to concrete 3D printing, for example,” adds Woznica. At the same time, the group allows individual companies to operate within the scope of their responsibilities, which means they have a great deal of autonomy. “But there have to be some limits, of course. That said, meetings with the group’s management are always useful and help us make fast decisions,” says Woznica, concluding his take on the MTX Group.

The future is fine

One of the smaller, but all the more interesting, members of MTX Group, Coal Mill, has changed its name. Now, it’s called Czech Mill. The company has started making a new product and is looking for a way to eliminate coal from its operation. Until recently, coal was their only key ingredient.

Text: Luděk Vokáč

Coal Mill has been producing a truly unusual product called anthracite multidust. In essence, it’s finely ground anthracite that’s used in smelters or to make lime. However, the company doesn’t want to bet everything on these types of products alone, so it changed its name to Czech Mill this June. The new name is supposed to better represent the future portfolio since the company will no longer grind coal alone.

At the end of April, whilst still called Coal Mill, the company received certification allowing it to sell a new product. The product is called ECO fly ash 450 and will complement the CF1 and CF2 ground coal that the company has been selling to date. “While introducing a new product into the portfolio may be routine for some companies, it’s a big occasion for us. It basically means we’ll change 50% of our production program,” remarks Czech Mill Chairman of the Board, Petr Labuzík about the news. Introducing a new product is also important for the future of the company. “There have been a lot of uncertainties surrounding coal lately. Even though latest developments suggest coal is going to stay with us for some time, we definitely don’t want to put all our eggs in one basket, so we started looking for ways to stop using coal in the future,” says the head of the company (simply put) about the use of a giant stone-grinding mill (we wrote about the production process in MTX Group Magazine 2021).

45 µm

A focus on the circular economy

The new product, the fly ash, has a very different use to ground coal. It’s used in construction as an additive when mixing concrete. We can sell it to concrete plants that make fresh concrete but also to companies that manufacture prefabricated reinforced concrete pieces and structures. Czech Mill has been making fly ash in Dětmarovice since July.

The base ingredient for making it is cinder, which is the residual waste from burning coal. Normally, it would end up in landfill. “We can source it from anyone who burns coal – power plants, heating plants, steel plants,” Labuzík explains. “We are happy that this has helped us become part of the circular economy. Something that wouldn’t normally be used gets a new life. Unused cinder becomes concrete. I’m really looking forward to seeing buildings built using our material,” he says.

At the same time, Labuzík admits this doesn’t mean the company is moving away from coal completely. “We are not moving away from coal right now and we definitely don’t want to do so overnight. The new product is proof of that,” he explains. However, he also says using a byproduct from burning coal is more future proof than grinding it and making anthracite multidust. “We are talking about the next ten or fifteen years,” Labuzík suggests, adding: “Until then, we can work on other future-proof products. We already have some ideas.”

For example, in the short term, the company can grind limestone, among other materials. “We are thinking about biomass and waste from certain agricultural and food-industry processes. For example, we could grind sunflower or coconut husks, or the pressed solids from olive oil production,” Labuzík says. But all this will take time, a lot of testing, and gradual development. Just like when we were developing the EKO fly ash 450.

Two years of work

Coal Mill worked on developing fly ash in partnership with Brno University of Technology over two years. “Our mentor is prof. Rudolf Hela from the Faculty of Civil Engineering. He’s helped us with the grinding process and checking the results. Also, he has done most of our material testing,” says Petr Labuzík about working with the university. The reason such a seemingly simple product was so difficult to develop is concrete durability. “You can add anything into concrete, but meeting durability standards is no easy task,” says Labuzík, adding that testing took a long time. The samples and their durability and stability are tested after one, two, and then three months. Only when a material meets all every standard after three months can it receive certification.

The Czech Mill director says the fineness of grinding is the key to success. “The average grain size of multidust was 90 micrometers. With fly ash, it’s 45 micrometers,” he explains. Labuzík says that this fineness pushes the technical limits of the mill. The production process isn’t that different, but it’s more demanding because the mill needs less input material and needs to grind for longer. Having different products in the portfolio is also demanding. When changing products, the mill needs to be thoroughly cleaned, which takes half a day. On the other hand, the technology remains the same. The company just needs to evaluate the way new products affect the wear and tear of the mill.

The new product has an average grain size of

Gradual growth and new products. Changes await Povrly

The traditional copper and copper-alloy processor, Měď Povrly, is about to make some changes over the upcoming months and years. It will change its name, expand its portfolio, and focus even more on foreign markets. Other important issues are the circular economy, energy saving, and renewable sources.

Text: Luděk Vokáč, photo: Barbora Mráčková

Měď Povrly will change its name later this year. The company will now be called Povrly Copper Industries, and its subsidiary, MEPO Trading, will be called PCI Trading. There are two main reasons for the name change. “Approximately two thirds of our production is for foreign clients who are not comfortable with Czech diacritics,” says the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors, David Kozel, on why the name has been made more international.

The other reason concerns the production portfolio. “We are currently making almost exclusively brass products, which is an alloy of copper and zinc. We will definitely return to making products from pure copper, but right now, having copper in our name is more fitting,” continues Kozel.

However, Kozel also says the new name isn’t just about globalization and the portfolio. It was also important to preserve the name of the plant because people in Povrly have been working with copper since 1898. “You could say that Povrly is a brand and we wanted to keep our affiliation with it,” says Kozel, further explaining the new name.

Changing the name required a number of steps like getting approval from the Board of Directors and amending registers with certification authorities and other places. Of course, the company will also communicate the name change to its customers. They are aiming to complete the process by the end of this year.

“We want to show that Povrly is changing, improving, and evolving,” Kozel says about the rebrand. Changing the name also meant changes inside the company. It has successfully increased production efficiency and volume, but further expansion can no longer be covered from profits alone. “Compared to 2019, we’ve managed to increase our capacity by about 30% and each month our production is at a record high,” says Kozel about the company’s growth. There are currently two investments planned which will also

significantly increase production capacity. “The first investment is to increase the size of our coils, which will increase our capacity by up to 15%,” explains the CEO. The second investment is for a new press for the cup-production line.

No end in sight for the plans

Povrly Copper Industries are also thinking about investments in the more distant future. “We are currently working on a long-term investment plan. In addition to increasing production capacity, the goal is to modernize and reconstruct our whole plant,” Kozel says. Reconstruction will make working there more comfortable and will also help save energy and water.

In Povrly, electricity is key and to a lesser extent, so is gas. “Part of the reconstruction is the deployment of solar panels. The roof area is large enough for it to make sense,” Kozel says. Having its own source of energy covers a part of the production but also helps it to be safer. When the power goes off, the melt needs to be cooled so that no accidents occur. The plant can currently handle such situations but having their own source of energy makes it even safer.

In terms of gas, the company plans to keep using natural gas but doesn’t rule out possible changes in the future. “It all depends on gas availability. We have prepared both short-term and long-term crisis plans for the event of power outages.” explains the CEO. Another idea for the future is building a recycling plant for copper and brass scraps. “We are currently using primary copper and zinc but also scraps. However, we are getting the scrap from our clients because we have high demands for alloy purity. Having our own recycling plant would allow us to import scrap from more sources,” contemplates David Kozel.

Měď Povrly -> Povrly Copper Industries

In the north-Bohemian town of Povrly, people have been working with copper since 1898. Povrly Copper Industries are continuing this tradition. The company mainly produces brass sheets, strips, coils, cups, and roundels. These semi-finished products are used in many industries. They are exported to 25 countries around the world and the company currently employs about 220 people.

Whether the recycling plant will be built or not is still uncertain, just like some of our other future plans. “Not even the most talented dystopian writers would have been able to imagine the events of the past three years. Planning ten or more years into the future is almost impossible, and yet also absolutely necessary. This paradox means our long-term plans will never be finished. They will always have to be amended in response to current developments,” reflects Kozel. By the way, METALIMEX buys all its primary metals as well as scraps from Europe and isn’t in any way dependent on Russia.

New products, new employees

Another part of the future of the company will be the development of the production portfolio. Měď Povrly has been mainly making brass semi-finished products, coils and cups. However, Kozel indicates that the company wants to return to making products from pure copper. A potential area for growth is copper electrical conductors. “The demand in this sector has recently grown due to electric vehicles and we want to take advantage of this trend,” Kozel says.

And it’s not just semi-finished products for cable production. On the contrary. Various couplings, connectors and other electroconductive products for (not only) electric vehicles are increasingly required and much more interesting. Pressing various parts requires investment in universal presses, for example. The presses used for cup production are designed to serve a single purpose only.

With or without new products in the portfolio, Povrly Copper Industries will also need new employees. “Sure, we will automate but at the same time, we will need more skilled workers and technicians,” explains Kozel. More jobs might be available in the new tool works, which the company is considering building.

15%

Investing in bigger coils increases production capacity by up to 15%.

Concrete 3D Printing: A revolution in construction and a new architectural style

The biggest Czech 3D concrete printing farm will be built in Žďár nad Sázavou under the guidance of ICE Industrial Services who specialize in industrial automation for MTX Group companies.

ICE Coral print farm has the ambition to become a world leader in construction automation. Printing concrete houses would give people a fast and affordable home, while also creating a new architectural style.

Text: Jana Bohutínská, photo: ICE

Over the past 70 years, technology in the construction industry has hardly changed. Therefore, there’s room for innovation such as 3D concrete printing. Using robots means the frame can be built in three days. “We want to make construction and housing more affordable,” says Tomáš Vránek, the ICE Industrial Services founder and CEO. At ICE Coral, we have an innovation team of roughly 35 experts in construction, concrete technology, 3D printing, and automation as well as engineers and architects.

Hundreds of tons of material tested

Dominik Stupka is in charge of 3D concrete printing and explains that it’s a multidisciplinary project consisting of a number of aspects. One is construction, focused on making the 3D printer itself. “ICE has been a key player in this field for a long time since making industrial automation machines is our primary focus. The other aspects were new for us and we had to acquire expertise in them,” he explains. The main area we had to master was the material – developing concrete and mixing cement with sand so it can be used in the 3D printer. Normal concrete can’t be used with this machine. “In the Czech Republic alone, there are several types of cement and dozens of types of sand, each of which with different properties. In the rest of the world, there are even more types of material. That's why we have a lab team that develops material and tests it. We have used hundreds of tons of materials just to test their functionality,” Stupka explains. The last aspect is architecture which is why a team of architects and structural engineers are working on the project as well. “3D concrete printing isn’t just about replacing bricks. In our opinion, the possibilities this technology offers will create a new architectural style around the globe,” he explains.

Printed houses don’t have to have right angles, they can be highly customized and they can integrate all the technological elements inside the house. Therefore, designing and building these houses is similar to engineering. The model is designed completely on a computer where the client can inspect it and the machine will then accurately print it.

Concrete 3D Printing

• Printing frames is up to five times faster.

• It also saves up to 70% more material compared to classic concrete casting.

• Thanks to a unique print head, it can use classic concrete materials to print anywhere in the world.

• Paving the way to the 2022-2023 plan to print a series of houses across the globe and to open the first concrete-printed school in the northern hemisphere in Žďár nad Sázavou in the summer of 2023.

Printed houses are more environmentally friendly

According to Dominik Stupka, the project is interesting and unique because many sectors work in synergy with each other. "It's a challenge. And we have an ambitious goal: We want to use our expertise to become the only 3D concrete printer in 10 years,” he says. This vision is based, just like automation in other sectors, on the fact that construction currently faces a critical worker shortage. “Besides, we expect construction to evolve similarly to the automotive industry –a strong focus on precision and efficiency that only machines can execute. Even in construction, you move to the position of developing and controlling machines instead of doing manual work," he explains.

Building houses using 3D concrete printing is more environmentally friendly as well. Part of the whole construction process is developing computer programs that can find optimal construction shapes that require less material without sacrificing material strength and structural properties. Also, the house will be built with gaps for cables, so you don’t need to cut into the concrete, which means less waste.

A house prototype and shared expertise

This June, we finished a long research and development project, and printed the first open-air concrete house on our company land in Žďár nad Sázavou. The prototype covers 70sqm and will be used for long-term structural testing. It will be regularly 3D-scanned to check the long-term properties of the house. The labs are now testing Ukrainian materials for concrete production. In addition to street furniture, the company has also printed defensive concrete roadblocks for Ukraine. The next step is supplying printers to Ukraine and other countries, so people can print concrete elements on site.

ICE Coral’s extensive expertise combines construction with engineering and high technology. The company also connects leading academic and corporate experts at the EIMAC Institute (European Institute for Materials, Automation and Construction), which ICE co-founded. “EIMAC aims to unite experts focused on new construction materials, designing modern structures, architecture, and robot automation technology specializing in concrete prefabrication and monoliths,” says Rudolf Hela, one of the co-founding members and professor at the Institute of Technology of Building Materials and Components. EIMAC partners with the ETH university in Zurich, CTU in Prague, Siemens, Mapei and Sika.

Food in Kopřivná: a pea burger, tender pork shoulder, or a Bloody Mary after work

At the Kopřivná pod Pradědem resort, visitors can enjoy a wide variety of sports, comfortable rooms, and great food. The kitchen team focuses on fresh food cooked from predominantly local ingredients. The menu has light meals for athletes, meat-free options for vegetarians, as well as dishes for meat lovers. It's also great for kids.

Food and drink in Kopřivná

Après-ski bar Deštník

A bar at the bottom part of the resort that serves non-alcoholic drinks, beer, wine, cocktails and other alcoholic beverages. Visitors can also grab some snacks.

Buffet

A large buffet that seats 120 guests, offering mainly ready-to-serve meals and fast food. The menu has light meals for athletes, as well as hearty dishes for those with a big appetite.

Restaurant

This hotel restaurant is the pride of Kopřivná. It caters to all kinds of customers and besides the permanent menu, it also has a daily lunch menu with a wide variety of meals. The restaurant has a bar and two terraces, and seats about 130 guests in total.

Event space

A space for private events. Custom catering and barbecues can be arranged.

Log cabin

People can also book a small historical log cabin for up to 12 people that also offers barbecue packages consisting of a grill, marinated meat from a local restaurant, cheese, and other foods the guests can grill.

Panorama Bar

During winter, the Panorama Bar is open at the top of the ski slope. It offers breathtaking views of the valley and a wide variety of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. The bar can also be booked for private events, and outside sleeping can be arranged.

The food in Kopřivná is very diverse but it also has some common denominators. “We try to use local ingredients as much as possible and to use them as efficiently as possible to cook delicious food,” says Michal Novák, the restaurant manager in Kopřivná. Their philosophy is to use the whole pig, from head to tail, for example. But you won’t find a whole pig in the kitchen.

Despite having several establishments (four in summer, five in winter) where hundreds of customers can eat and drink at the same time, the chefs in Kopřivná try to cook with as many fresh ingredients as possible, so they don’t buy large supplies of food here. “For example, we buy five kilos of lamb from a local farmer to make confit. There is also a hatchery nearby, so we go there and buy ten trout which we cook the same day. In Bělá pod Pradědem, there’s a great cheesemaker where we buy tens of kilograms of cheese each day,” Novák explains. Suppliers bring us fresh ingredients three times a week, so everything is really fresh. “We do have some minimal stock, but that’s just in case there’s unexpectedly high demand. Nothing stays on our shelves for long,” emphasizes Novák.

The menu revolves around the seasons. For example, at the end of August, there’s a blueberry festival where visitors can enjoy a number of dishes and drinks made from locally picked, fresh blueberries such as milkshakes, daiquiri, spritz, sweet dumplings, and meats marinated in blueberry sauce or served with blueberry remoulade. “At that time of year, we are packed from dusk till dawn,” says Novák, smiling.

Dishes for athletes and gourmets alike

Food in Kopřivná takes many forms. In the lower part of the resort, there’s the après-ski bar Deštník, where people can grab something to drink or a snack on such as tortillas and other fast food. There’s also a buffet that seats 120 people which offers mainly light meals

Text: Luděk Vokáč, photo: Kopřivná Resort archive

(including vegetarian options) for athletes, ideal before or during physical activity, but it also offers hearty dishes for those who have just finished their activities. “We offer classics such as deep-fried cauliflower and cheese, roasted pork or goulash, as well as homemade salads, fresh coleslaw, bulgur with tofu, and other dishes. Lenka, who takes care of the customers, also makes homemade lemonades,” Novák explains.

An important part of the restaurant portfolio in Kopřivná is the renowned hotel restaurant. “The challenge here is catering to a wide array of customers: athletes, families with children, the elderly, and managers that come here for training courses or meetings,” Novák says. On the menu, there are staples such as schnitzel and burgers, along with traditional Czech meals with a modern twist (for example tender grilled sous-vide pork shoulder served with beetroot and potato gnocchi), and vegetarian dishes (for example homemade spinach spätzle with bryndza cheese). Also, Iva makes a wide variety of desserts.

The menu isn’t unnecessarily extensive, but anyone can find something they’ll want to try. “For guests that stay for several days, we also have a daily lunch menu,” says Novák, explaining the diversity of the restaurant. The head chef here is Karel Súkup who cooks a variety of meals, including vegetarian alternatives. “Have you tried a beetroot or pea burger? If not, try them in Kopřivná. Maybe they’ll be on the menu. Even I, as a meat lover, enjoy them,” says the local restaurant manager.

Recently, they have also expanded their breakfast menu. It offers Iva’s homemade cakes and buns, plus other meals such as Eggs Benedict or smoked salmon with spinach, both served on an English muffin and you can wash it down with a Mimosa or a Bloody Mary. “These can come in handy after a long night in one of our bars,” adds Michal Novák.

By the way, the local bars are introducing new cocktails and there’s a new pool bar planned and a wine menu update. Moravian wines are accompanied by wines from lesser-known French and Italian regions, which are Michal Novák’s specialty. “I have passed an international sommelier exam and I wanted to use it in the local restaurant scene,” he says. “I returned to this field in spring after a six-month hiatus and I enjoy it immensely. Our whole team enjoys it, which the customers can see, I hope,” says Novák, invitingly.

In Kopřivná, they cook from fresh local ingredients.

Foremen and Robots

Experts in materials and traditional craftsmanship with technical expertise combined with automation and robots. That is what we saw in Břidličná, Povrly, and Kamenice. In these three factories, they combine precious craftsmanship with the future of industry.

AL INVEST Břidličná: Melting

The Danish physicist Hans Ørsted became famous for his research in the field of electromagnetism, but he also isolated aluminum in 1825. Although aluminum is one of the most widely available elements in the Earth’s crust, its production before this technological advancement had been very difficult. The Czech Republic has a long tradition in aluminum processing, dating back to the 1930s in Břidličná u Bruntálu. Now, top quality aluminum sheets and foils for industrial use, and other aluminum products are made there. You may even hold one in your hand each morning when you eat breakfast – yogurt cup lids. This represents a rather unique company for the Czech Republic, and indeed there are just three European companies that focus on the whole process from aluminum melting to making final aluminum products. Daniel Ujházy, who’s in charge of the aluminum division in Břidličná, explains how modernization has helped the company make top quality slabs which are then further processed. Also, the company recycles all production waste. Almost every single aluminum chip goes back into the production process.

Vincent Hrubý, Plant Manager and Group Director of Aluminium Technology Development, says the smelting plant is the beating heart of the factory. We met Zdeněk Vrána, metallurgical foreman, who has been working here for 30 years. Together we head to the smelting plant. Smelters need to be tough men. It’s not a job for someone looking for a clean workplace and clearly defined processes. They are masters of their craft. It’s also a creative process because they create something which is extremely interesting and the whole factory builds on their work. The cranes transporting heavy material around the smelting plant are operated by women.

Smelters work with shiny liquid metal and the smelting plant is where the whole production process begins. It’s really hot here because there are two hot gas furnaces where the temperature exceeds 1,000°C. First, aluminum is loaded into the furnaces. At the end, you get high-quality aluminum slabs (the quality is continuously monitored in labs) ready for further processing for customers. In 24 hours, smelters make approximately 50 tons in the bigger furnace and 42 tons in the smaller furnace.

What makes a master smelter? Highest quality products, great ingot appearance, material quality, and work efficiency. “Formal education in this field no longer exists. You need to learn everything on your own. It takes years to become so good that nothing can surprise you. But you will constantly find yourself being surprised because working with melted metal is a live mechanism,” says Daniel Ujháza about the craft that is difficult to explain, adding that deriving joy from the work comes only after several years. "It's hours of hard work," Daniel points out. "And liters of sweat," adds Zdeněk.

AL INVEST Břidličná

Aluminum products have been made in Břidličná since the 1930s. The company is a major European aluminum producer, and the only domestic one. It makes aluminum sheets, packaging, foils, and rolled semi-finished products. The company focuses on innovation and production modernization, not only in terms of technology, but also in terms of environmental protection.

Text: Jana Bohutínská, photo: Barbora Mráčková

01 Melted aluminum flows from the furnace, gets cooled and solidifies in the form of aluminum ingots.

02 Even with modernization and innovation, it still all hinges on the aluminum, the quality of which is continuously monitored in labs.

04 Zdeněk Vrána examines the rough aluminum slabs which are the pride of the plant.

03 The heart of the smelting plant is two continuously operating furnaces.

05 Gas furnaces which are loaded with material is where the smelting process begins.

07 The slabs are further processed, as Zdeněk Vrána shows.

06 Before the slabs leave the plant, they are cut and milled into the desired form.

09 All aluminum waste, including the filings from cutting, is returned to the production process in the smelting plant.

08 At the beginning, there was raw material, at the end there were aluminum slabs, which Břidličná is proud of.

Metallurgical foreman

Zdeněk Vrána, who is in charge of the smelting plant, assigns shifts and makes sure the plant has enough material. He also organizes educational events and ensures that all employees have all the information they need. He knows the smelting plant and the technological procedure like nobody else. When he was 21, he started working as the third smelter and learned the craft from scratch. He became foreman a year ago and this year, he celebrates 30 years of working in Břidličná.

Povrly Copper Industries: Rolling

Povrly Copper Industries

Metallurgy in Povrly dates back to 1898. Today, the company is constantly modernizing and produces rolled and pressed brass products. It also makes industrial products, cups, and rosettes in the cup plant. Its products are shipped worldwide and it is a major employer in the Ústí nad Labem Region.

Being a rolling mill operator at Povrly Copper Industries near Ústí nad Labem is a similar story. Jiří Štofčo, the first rolling mill operator and seasoned volunteer firefighter, shows us around the rolling mill plant. He began working here in 1994 when he started as the fourth rolling mill operator. He managed to get formal education in this field, something which no longer exists meaning you have to learn everything on site now.

Before we go to the rolling mill plant, we meet the director, David Kozel. “The material we work with makes us unique. We are the only Czech brass smelter and there are just a handful of others across Europe. In the rolling mill plant, our unique expertise is working with brass,” he explains.

Brass is an alloy. The production process starts with buying pure copper or zinc but also brass and copper waste. The materials are heated to around 1,300°C, melted and then cast into slabs. The slabs are then heated and hot-rolled into rough coils. These are then milled and cold-rolled into a specific thickness. Then, the mechanical properties are adjusted. The coil is annealed, pickled, and cleaned, and cut into desired width. "The vast majority of our production goes to products for industrial application. About half goes directly to customers and the other half is processed in our cup plant, which is a pressing plant that makes semi-finished products. All the technological waste created during production goes back into the furnaces,” explains David Kozel. The company produces around 1,100 tons of products a month and, over the past 2.5 years, it has increased its production capacity by about 30%.

Investing in modernization is a big discussion point in Povrly, where the plant stands between a river and a railway next to residential buildings. They have a ten-year modernization plan. The modern computer-controlled machines place increasing demands on those who operate them. The same goes for the rolling mill. “At its core, it is still a traditional craft, but it keeps being improved and refined. Machine modernization reflects the increasing pressure on efficient material use and energy consumption. However, knowing the material perfectly is still key,” he says, adding that Jiří Štofčo knows the material perfectly thanks to his vast experience and professional development.

When David Kozel speaks of the investment outlook, it means a huge amount of work. “That’s exactly what my colleagues and I enjoy about the job – the opportunity to develop the company so it keeps growing and doesn’t need to fire people. We feel responsible to the locals,” he explains. Respect for human work and the experience of local workers are important to him. “We’ve achieved a great feat. A man who worked here for over 40 years trained his grandson before retiring,” he shares.

03 The interior of a massive rolling machine.

01 Over his long career, Jiří Štofčo has gone a long way in his profession. These days, you can find him in the control room where he manages the operators via computer.

02 The rolling mill produces brass coils of the required thickness, which an experienced operator can guess just by looking at it.

Rolling mill operator

Jiří Štofčo, the first rolling mill operator, has been working at the company since 1994 after graduating from a nonferrous metal rolling school. He followed in the footsteps of his parents, who also worked at the plant. Today, his wife works in the company lab, his nephew works for the group, and his son has a summer job as the gatekeeper. Jiří started on the formatting line, but then he had to go and do his military service. After that, he started working with the four-cylinder roller as the third rolling mill operator. Ten years later, he transferred to a new rolling mill. A couple of years later, the older crew retired, so he came back and gradually made his way up to first rolling mill operator. Patience, composure, and responsibility are the strengths he uses not only at work, but also as a volunteer firefighter.

01 Aluminium rods are the raw material processed by the factory.

Strojmetal

Aluminium Forging Kamenice: Forging

An automated forging line

Last year, Strojmetal started using another automated forging line. Jiří Rokos, the production manager, says this line primarily supplies the machining plant with semi-finished products. It can make 1 piece in 1.5 seconds, which means 55,000 pieces a day. It’s significantly faster than other production lines. It has a wide range of forging positions, up to seven tools per set in the press, it can transfer parts and do complete heat treatment. A metal rod enters the line on one side, and a product ready for the machining shop comes out the other side. “It’s a different technological process which makes our production more efficient and economical,” says Robert Smutný, CEO of Strojmetal. The company has also built a new automated forging line in Bruntál, again in cooperation with Schuler. It has been operational since this September and will further increase production capacity. In the upcoming four years, Strojmetal will work with ICE Industrial Services, a company specializing in production line automation and programming, to build two more automated forging lines.

Strojmetal, situated in the Central Bohemian town of Kamenice, mainly turns aluminum and aluminum alloys into forged car chassis parts for premium global car manufacturers. Jan Žídek and I went to see the machining plant. Jan Žídek, a graduate of the Brno University of Technology, started at Strojmetal two and a half years ago as a machining engineer. In the machining plant, he has managed several projects, worked as a project manager, and stood in for his boss. Now, he is the boss. People will learn the craft as they go along. What’s important is enthusiasm and work ethic. Jan Žídek likes it when his employees have the option to find ways to improve their job. When their ideas and feedback make the workplace better. “I like it when there’s palpable progress each month,” he says.

The machining plant has been operating for about six years. The company had to build a completely new building to house it. Two new machining centers have improved the plant’s capacity and the same goes for two completely automated production lines for large-capacity projects. They simply insert the semi-finished product and the robots make the final product. The machining plant works with semi-finished products from the forge which are then made into final products. They use every single piece of their precious material, including filings from the ground.

Strojmetal Aluminium Forging Kamenice

A factory in Kamenice dating back to 1822. Today, the company mainly makes forged chassis parts from aluminum and aluminum alloys for premium passenger cars. It also focuses on material innovation. To improve diagnostics accuracy, they have built a new, specialized center, which is also interesting architecturally

“Strojmetal is a major European forger. We have extensive experience and competence in this field. These days, customers don’t want just a forged part. They want it machined as well. Machining is a relatively new skill for us and increases the value of our parts. On top of that, we assemble the parts for our clients,” explains Robert Smutný, the CEO of Strojmetal, as he takes us into the machining plant, which is equipped with sophisticated technology for machining and assembly, including modern automated machines. Thanks to machining, the company has been able to obtain exclusive new projects and keeps growing. It even makes parts for premium car manufacturers. "The more specific a car is, the more unique and complicated the part is, which is challenging but also good for business. Plus, it adds value," he says.

Satisfaction at work comes after a year or two of preparations, when the project is successfully launched. “It’s great when our predictions about a new product come true. We are also happy with how successful both the machining plant launch has been and the new forging line which we launched in Bruntál this September,” says Robert Smutný. He also reiterates that the automotive industry is currently struggling with fluctuations caused by external factors. "That's why we have a diverse job, different to before, when the established supply chains used to work well. At the same time, we are still able to meet our customers’ wishes," he concludes, adding that the electromobility boom also represents an opportunity for the company.

01 Machining is a relatively new skill for Strojmetal, opening the door to new interesting and lucrative contracts. It uses machines connected to an information system together with robots. But human work is still key to the operation. The automated workplace increases production capacity. The robots can completely machine and assemble the final product.

03 Jan Žídek appreciates it when his colleagues come up with ideas and take initiative. He enjoys finding ways to improve production.

02 Meeting over the plans. The finished product must meet the customer's requirements completely.

Head of machining

Jan Žídek has been working for Strojmetal for two and a half years and he heads up the machining shop. He graduated from the Brno University of Technology, majoring in engineering technology and industrial management. These days, his job is mainly attending daily meetings with his colleagues from all over the company, including the machining shop. His goal is to give the machining foremen more responsibility and a bigger role. Sometimes, he spends a lot of time on his computer since his job requires him to constantly educate himself. He’s glad he can immediately put the things he has learned into practice.

The Four Pillars of Learning and Development in MTX Group

The group’s strategy for employee learning and development follows the overall business strategy. Both require capable people. It helps us develop the skills and abilities of our employees, which helps us grow successfully and sustainably as a whole.

Text: Jana Zimová, Vice-Chairwoman of the Board of Directors, Chief Human Resources Officer at MTX Group

Learning isn’t new for our companies. In addition to the large number of formal training courses, our employees naturally learn in their workplace. Even if we didn’t want to grow, the pace and everchanging nature of modern manufacturing requires us to adapt and move forward.

Corporate Academy

This year, the MTX Group decided to systematize development and education and launch a unified network of so-called corporate academies. We approach training and development beyond just sitting through a lecture that we can then report and feel good about.

We felt a better idea was to reflect the concept of a corporate academy in its logo. Each company has the same logo, but in different colors and with their own brand. It depicts an academy building built on solid foundations, just like our business. The academy has four pillars, each representing a part of the learning and development process.

Job market

The first pillar is the job market. If we want our companies to prosper in the long run, we need educated and professional employees. That’s obvious. But to have someone to educate and develop, we need to first make sure we have people when we expand, when someone retires, or to cover natural fluctuations. Therefore, the first pillar deals with potential future employees. My colleagues and I call them “those in front of the gates”.

Our task on the job market begins in schools, at all levels. We consider working with schools extremely important. This year, we have achieved a lot in this regard. The group has started or renewed cooperation with almost thirty schools. We managed to sign ten memoranda of cooperation with several high schools and universities. For example, the Technical University of Ostrava and Czech Technical University in Prague, several high schools in Bruntál, Rýmařov, Benešov, and Vlašim, plus an elementary school in Břidličná. We want to connect schools with real-world experience as much as possible and introduce elements of dual teaching. Pupils and students can try out field trips, internships, and summer jobs. Also, they can finish their final theses here or get help with them. After graduating, they can start working with us. Cooperation with schools has also brought a number of interesting educational activities for our employees. For example, AL INVEST and METALIMEX organized a forming, printing and milling workshop in cooperation with the Technical University of Ostrava. We also have a number of business projects in which we partner with universities, and they help us with research and development.

In addition to working with schools, the first pillar of the academy also includes subjects such as brand building, cooperation with employment agencies, job centers or other government institutions. The aim is to gain visibility on the job market. To be well established and to cooperate with different cities.

We want to connect schools with practical experience as much as possible and introduce elements of dual teaching.

Adaptation

The second pillar is adaptation and it builds on the first pillar. It concerns those who have passed through our “gates” – new recruits or colleagues who have transferred from a different department. We devote more and more time to preparing well-developed onboarding programs and to improving them. We are building towards each new employee getting a custom-made onboarding plan and useful information for newcomers in the form of a brochure, email, or an app that we use in several companies. An integral part of the adaptation process involves what we call “internal lecturers”, i.e., people who have useful experience to pass it on, which can significantly accelerate the learning process. For example, this year, we launched a pilot forging training project in STROJMETAL. It combines theory and hands-on practice with an experienced teacher. Another company with a robust onboarding program is ICE Industrial Services, where each newcomer is guided through the entire onboarding process by the so-called “godfather”.

An important part of the adaptation process is regular feedback and an evaluation of the fulfillment of the adaptation and plan and probationary period.

Training

The third pillar is about developing professional expertise and increasing the skill level of our already integrated workers over the course of their entire employment cycle. This includes a wide range of activities from courses, workshops, work evaluations, constructive feedback, coaching, participation in projects, and professional association membership.

At MTX Group, we have established several principles of personal development. One of the main principles is that each of us is personally responsible for our own growth. In our experience, if someone wants to grow and develop, nothing can stop them. If we don’t

give people space, opportunities, and resources, they will leave and develop elsewhere. Managers play a key role in preventing this. We encourage them and teach them to regularly ask their team if they’re happy, what they enjoy and what they want to develop. At the same time, they should be critical in assessing if a certain development is viable for the company. Without the dialogue between managers and their team, the opposite can happen. The company might invest resources into someone who is not interested in developing, which is meaningless. Another general principle that we apply to learning is the 70:20:10 learning model. 70% of all activities are best learned by doing the job, 20% of new knowledge can be acquired from other people (coaching, mentoring, feedback etc.), and only the last 10% is learned through formal education such as training courses.

There are many examples of specific educational activities which we have carried out this year, both offline and online. METALIMEX has trained all their managers in leadership and started the Sales and Soft Skills Academy, for which around 60 employees have already enrolled. AL INVEST, in addition to the aforementioned technical education, offer organized language and IT courses. Plus, they support their employees in completing their high-school or university education. Another example of our development activities is the implementation of the assessment center for more than 20 employees in Povrly Copper Industries, sending several colleagues from OKK Koksovny to a yearly Coke Oven Academy, and organizing process optimization workshops at STROJMETAL. We put considerable resources into development and education, but this investment is successful only when the newly acquired knowledge is put into practice. Developing and educating someone without it having a useful benefit for the company is just not worth it.

Using internal talent is another big area in the third pillar. Proven work results, the right mindset, healthy ambition, and loyalty

are prerequisites for a good outcome when promoting someone. We have a number of examples of internal candidates moving into often very senior roles, and the ratio of their success compared to external candidates is clearly above average. To develop such people with high potential, we have chosen a combination of feedback, coaching, mentoring, and training, and trying out the job with no strings attached.

Succession

If you follow the life cycle of an employee, you get to the fourth pillar of our academy, which is succession. It’s important to have a plan B in case an important employee departs unexpectedly. If an employee is temporarily absent, we call it subbing. Subbing is usually natural –we go on vacation and business trips or we can get sick. In that case, one or more colleagues can replace us temporarily so that production doesn’t halt. If a key employee leaves permanently, we call it succession. The process is simple. We identify the posts we can’t afford to leave open; we identify suitable successors and we systematically prepare them for the transition. But anyone who has experienced succession will tell you that the reality is far more complicated than these short sentences describing how the process is supposed to work. For many industrial companies like ours, succession is an essential tool for transferring unique expertise from generations of experienced craftsmen to new ones. People who have studied a specific craft or have mastered it over the years are getting old. Our duty is to ensure they pass their knowledge onto newcomers. It’s a large and complex task, but we have to do it to maintain continuity. This year, we plan to define the whole succession process, identify critical positions, verify suitable candidates, and prepare their development plan which we will fill in the upcoming years.

The purpose of the HR Academy

The strategic task of HR at MTX Group is to ensure that there’s a sufficient number of qualified people that meet our business goals. The corporate academy program provides a comprehensive framework for making our brands more attractive on the job market, adapting properly to the position, increasing the competence level, knowledge, and skills of our employees and passing on knowledge from generation to generation.

Succession is an important tool for passing knowledge and experience from one generation of craftsmen to another.

Forging forewoman: I combine empathy with efficiency

Veronika Koláčková hasn’t studied engineering. She started working in Strojmetal as a worker five years ago and she has worked her way up to the position of forewoman. If anyone thinks that forging is just for men, the following interview will prove them wrong. A modern forger can be managed by anyone who is goal oriented.

When somebody talks about forgers, I usually imagine men. I was a bit surprised to see a woman here. How did you end up here?

I originally started as a penetration checker, but I worked my way up.

Surely you didn’t become the forewoman overnight…

Of course not. The first two years, I was checking penetration quality, which means looking for hidden defects and cracks that might be invisible to the naked eye. The following four years, I worked as a penetration control operator. That is actually a management role with up to ten colleagues on the team. I was in charge of the line but I had to consult the foreman on how to handle everything so that our products were delivered on time. Also, I had to learn how to drive a forklift.

So, now you are the only forewoman at Strojmetal? How does it feel?

I have to admit I was initially a bit afraid to be taken seriously. However, our final operations team is full of women, so I hope it will be easier for them to come to me and tell me what they need if they have problems.

Working your way up has surely won you some respect…

I think it definitely helps. It’s helped me understand the production process. By working on the penetration line, I know the various defects that can occur.

Text: Kateřina Šírová, photo: Barbora Mráčková

How does this check actually work?

That depends. There are different workplaces with different workflows. Some places have complete penetration checks for cracks, others only perform visual checks. It depends on the customer's requirements.

You have just celebrated one year in this position. What is your typical day like?

A forewoman has to coordinate the team and distribute tasks to the workers on shift. In production, the tasks keep changing and the forewoman has to deal with absences. Any hitches are on me. Also, I am responsible for work safety compliance.

Do you have an example?

Sure. It can be a small thing. For example, when our supplier doesn’t deliver packaging for distribution on time, we have to halt production and respond quickly. You have to deal with several variants at once, which is often very difficult. When a forklift operator gets sick, we have a problem, because we don’t have enough of them. The absolute key is to stick to the plan.

So, what qualities must a forewoman have?

You have to be organized and a good leader. There are up to fifty people working at final operations at the same time. You also need to have empathy when you work with other people. At the end of the

day, you need to efficiently manage a team of workers and make sure the production and personnel capacities are used to the full, so that productivity stays high.

Is there time for friendships?

I think we definitely have a great team. At work, we focus on what’s important, but we also see each other after work.

What are your success criteria?

Staying on schedule whilst also following protocol and work safety procedures. It’s important to follow the protocol, even if products change frequently.

What about the women in your team? Do you see other future forewomen among them?

Absolutely! A few years ago, only men used to be in charge of penetration, but today no one looks at it as a man’s job anymore. In the future, it might actually turn, because our control operators are now all women. Our female colleagues are reliable and meticulous, and that is very important to us.

What kind of boss do you want to be now?

We need to be productive and efficient, but I also want to be approachable. In work, I think everyone understands people need to be motivated positively and not negatively. I want to stick to that.

The final operations team is mostly women. I hope it will be easier for them to come to me for advice.

Diagnostic center

Two years ago, Strojmetal built a bold new building – the diagnostics center. “The automotive industry calls our components “safety parts”. Therefore, they require specific certified material quality control, which we used to do with external suppliers until now. The new diagnostic center allows us to make most of the quality checks ourselves. Also, we can now offer quality checks for other customers,” says CEO, Robert Smutný when explaining why the center is important for the company and why it’s such a big shift. On top of that, the building has modern and aesthetic architecture. It stands in front of the castle, a cultural monument, on the company's premises, and was designed by Prague-based architecture studio ABTSMOLEN. In 2020, the building even won the Central Bohemian Region Building of the Year Award.

Digitalization helps connect the companies within MTX Group

Industrial digitalization has been a key point of discussion for MTX Group. Their companies have been focusing on it intensively not only in production, but also in their “background processes”. Digitizing and automating them is not as palpable as production line automation, but it dramatically improves efficiency.

Text: Luděk Vokáč

Replacing tall stacks of paper with a mostly automated digital data stream. That’s the ideal office of today and the future. MTX Group is also jumping on this trend. “Our goal is to have completely paperless offices in the near future,” says Jiří Vítek, Group IS Director. Digital circulation and archiving documents are good for the environment, but it also has other unexpected benefits. This is especially true at MTX Group, because a group of interconnected companies relies on intense and detailed communication with each other.

“Since our trading company METALIMEX is business partners with both our suppliers and clients, most transactions involve three parties,” explains Jiří Vítek. This means all paperwork such as invoices, orders, and other documents doesn’t just circulate between METALIMEX and the end client, but it is also handled by the individual group companies. It’s a good example of a potential area for digitization and automation, and METALIMEX is trying to make the most of it.

The group uses three information systems that are custom made to suit the needs of the individual companies and their production. They are interconnected, so as much information as possible is exchanged automatically. For example, when a client puts a request to METALIMEX, it enters it into the relevant company’s system and automatically calculates price and delivery estimates, which are then automatically sent back to METALIMEX. After the client confirms it, an order is created. When the finished product leaves the company and is sent to the client, the system automatically creates issue notes for METALIMEX together with invoices that account for current exchange rate issued by the Czech National Bank and several other documents. The Group also uses automatic currency hedging for foreign trades. “We don’t speculate on exchange rates. We secure them and thus also the amount for the transaction date,” explains Vítek.

The group’s IT systems can also automatically check received invoices and they deal with inventory records and logistics. “In this respect, it doesn’t matter if it’s raw materials, spare parts, or overhead materials such as protective equipment, bottled water, packaging etc.,” says the information systems director. For example, if the inventory is getting close to a specified limit, the systems can automatically alert the purchasing manager and offer him solutions based on current demand. "Either directly to the tendered supplier, if there is a valid supplier price list, or as an auction in the electronic auction system," says Vítek.

Automation also makes it possible to handle long-term orders and call-offs for a given time period using what’s known as ‘EDI communication’, which makes production planning easier, especially for the automotive industry. “We have also automated our HR onboarding processes. Using internal questionnaires, we monitor how satisfied our employees are and how we can utilize their skills. A number of training sessions and courses are now done digitally," describes Vítek. In the future, MTX Group wants to digitize more than just standard procedures such as safety training. It also wants to facilitate certification for external suppliers to access the plants. "We also teach employees to work with the IT helpdesk. Since we have recorded all our requirements, we can plan our work better and we know how our capacities are utilized” concludes Vítek.

Jiří Vítek

Jiří Vítek has over 25 years of experience in information systems and he has been working for MTX Group for seven years. However, he had worked with the group before that as a representative of another company that was tasked with implementing information systems for the group. He started at MTX Group as a programmer and analyst, later he was given the task of leading the entire ICT department. "Over time, we found out that the job involves so much that we split this position into two roles (Group IS Director and Group IT Director), which allows us to focus on the companies in the group conceptually," says Jiří Vítek.

The information systems within MTX Group are interconnected, so as much information as possible is exchanged automatically.

Sustainability in MTX Group: Circular economics, cutting edge technology and solar panels

Social and environmental responsibility are important drivers of our time. It also applies to industry, which faces increasing pressure to limit CO2 emissions. MTX Group has big but still realistic goals in this regard.

Sustainability is the basic instinct of every living organism. You just try to survive,” says MTX Group Chief Strategy Officer, David Bečvář. He also thinks social responsibility and long-term sustainability have always been an integral part of industry. “Each company is trying to survive and the only way to do that is by being responsible and sustainable,” Bečvář adds. “The difference is social demand or what social responsibility and sustainability mean to people at any given time. After WW2, the demand was to feed people and return to normal. Today, the demand is understandably different,” explains the CSO.

The group has always gone with social demand, and it’s no different today. "It doesn't matter if society defines whether you have to comply with noise limits or emission limits. You always have to adapt and work in such an environment," says Bečvář. The proof that the individual areas of sustainability are changing can be seen in recent events related to the war in Ukraine or in the gradually changing requirements placed on industry. In the past, the main focus was cutting emissions, but now a company’s carbon footprint is an increasingly important issue. The difference between the two can seem imperceptible to some, but in practice, there are a lot of differences. Emissions and carbon footprints will remain crucial topics in the medium term. That’s why MTX Group has been investing and taking steps in this regard. Unlike some other companies, however, the group does not promise the impossible or build "castles in the air". “There is a lot of talk about cutting emissions and our carbon footprint, but how are we supposed to be specific in this regard, when the Czech Republic still doesn’t have concrete, realistic plans for cutting carbon emissions in its energy mix?” asks Bečvář.

According to him, the group must rely on its own capabilities and skills and adapt its overall sustainability strategy accordingly. "In my opinion, it’s realistic to reduce the carbon footprint of our products by 30% by 2030, maybe even a little earlier," says Bečvář.

The group will take action to achieve this in three main areas. The first is increasing production efficiency. “New Best Available Technology (BAT) will help us reduce the energy required to produce our products,” explains Bečvář, adding that it’s mainly about modernizing current operations. The second area is inputs.

Which is why MTX Group has decided to build its own solar power plant. There are three plants planned for the Moravian-Silesian Region with a total output of roughly 80–100MWp. These power plants should partially power production and any surplus energy is going to be sold to the grid. Solar power will allow the group to retain green certificates, which will offset the carbon footprint of the energy we might have bought were there not enough solar energy available. But, according to Bečvář, solar energy is an uncertain field. “We have a specific intention, but we still don’t know if we will be able to connect our capacity into the grid. If we can’t, our plans won’t be worth it,” says the CFO.

Waste is the future

Waste management is another important way to reduce your carbon footprint, according to Bečvář. "The circular economy is a crucial area for us. Why should we only make primary materials if we can use material that is already available,” says Bečvář. In terms of emissions, recycling makes a big difference. The carbon footprint of primary aluminum made using electricity from renewable sources, is about 4 kg of CO2 per kilogram of material. Someone had to mine bauxite somewhere and somehow transport it to the manufacturer. When using industrial waste, the footprint drops to 1.6 kg of CO2, and when using post-consumer waste, it drops to zero. For comparison, for example, Strojmetal Aluminium Forging adds only 0.95 kg of CO2 per kilogram of final product with its forging production process.

For the MTX Group, investing in recycling waste makes a lot of sense in terms of reducing its carbon footprint (but also overall

costs). And it's not just at metallurgical plants where MTX Group is trying to make products and materials with a higher proportion of recycled materials. The group also includes the young company Henry Gas, which turns municipal waste into fuel. And not just waste that is collected from households right now. "Landfills are very unpleasant and often dangerous places, but at the same time they are a huge source of material and energy," suggests Bečvář as a possible future path. You can also use waste from incinerators that turn municipal waste into energy as a raw material. It’s called cinder and it contains a lot of metals, including non-ferrous ones. There is technology that can extract them.

Effort on all sides

In the Czech Republic, however, no one offers this. "It's mainly about showing that there is demand, and we will definitely try to do that," explains Bečvář. Another area that needs improvement is metal waste recycling, including small packaging and pieces. The CSO is also trying to think of ways to use the waste meaningfully. "We think we should manage the waste ourselves. It needs a lot of heat to melt and we think it’s better to just heat it once and keep it hot until the material turns into sheet metal or another final product that doesn’t need any further heat processing,” continued David, outlining the vision.

Another way to cut emissions is to monitor the carbon footprint of bought products. “If you don’t check carbon emissions throughout the whole chain, you can easily just move the problem instead of solving it,” explains Bečvář. Just as clients place demands on MTX Group, the group places demands on its suppliers as much as possible. The CSO suggests another way to cut emissions is dialogue with the customer. “Some of our clients’ quality requirements go against the principles of reducing our carbon footprint, but they don’t

That's how much MTX Group plans to reduce emissions by.

affect the quality or functionality of the final product,” says Bečvář, adding that emissions can be reduced on all sides.

Sometimes, even functionality can be sacrificed to a certain degree, but that needs to be done with great caution. “For example, we can make better recyclable packaging for food. The problem is that it reduces shelf life, and we have to be careful not to cause more food waste,” he describes. In general, he advocates that all necessary changes be approached with reason and in a broader context.

OKK: Over a century of tradition

OKK Koksovny only joined MTX Group in 2013, but their coking plant in Ostrava was built back in 1908. However, the history of coke production in OKK dates back even further, to 1843. This traditional operation is one of the most advanced in its field and is the biggest foundry coke producer in Europe.

Text: Luděk Vokáč

When Abraham Darby started using coke to melt iron ore in his Coalbrookdale blast furnace in 1709, he sparked the industrial revolution. And coke production has since become an important field. Back then, people knew it for about a hundred years. At the beginning of the 17th century, Henry Platt proposed a process similar to charcoal processing.

People only used coke in a limited way at that time for heating or in some food production processes. For example, it was used in breweries to roast malt. Using coke greatly reduces sulfur compounds emissions which contaminate the malt and the beer brewed from it. This is where Abraham Darby found his inspiration.

The history of coke making in our country is rooted in the Ostrava region, where the first coke ovens appeared in the 1840s.

The first coke oven was called Jan and it opened in 1843 in Karviná. Later, it was renamed President Beneš in 1946 and then Československá Armáda (Czechoslovak Army) in 1948. This plant can be considered the foundation of what is now OKK Koksovny. In 1952, Ostravsko Karvinské Koksovny (OKK) was founded by the state, which grouped together individual coking plants in the region. They were called Svoboda, Jan Šverma, Karolina, Trojice, Československá Armáda and Lazy.

The only coking plants outside of OKK were those that belonged to metallurgical operations, namely the coking plants in Vítkovice, Třinec, Ostrava (Nová Huť was founded in 1952), and in Kladno. The state-owned OKK was closely linked to the state-owned Ostrava-Karviná mines (OKD). It effectively controlled OKK and was also their exclusive coal supplier.

Even in former communist Czechoslovakia, there was gradual development in the field of coke making. First, the Lazy coking plant was shut down in 1967, with a replacement planned for the future. In 1976, the construction of a new coke oven plant in Stonava began, but it never really got up and running. Construction resumed

just ten years later, but then came the Velvet Revolution, which changed the plans again. Construction of the coke plant ceased for good in 1991.

At that time, OKK was part of the new joint-stock company Ostravsko-Karviné Doly, which replaced the state-owned OKD on January 1st, 1991. The coking plants which entered the new era had been considerably slimmed down, as the coking plants Trojice (1983) and Karolina (1984) had also been shut down before the revolution. The remaining coking plants were Svoboda, Jan Šverma and Československá Armáda. In 1994, these spun off into an independent company, OKK, which remains 100% owned by OKD.

After the revolution, the coking plant needed to adapt to the new market and make its production more environmentally friendly. However, there was also a decline in operations. In 1997, after 154 years, the operation of the Československá Armáda coking plant, the oldest and the longest operating coking plant in the Czech Republic, shut down. In the same year, the remaining two coking plants, Svoboda and Jan Šverma, both in Ostrava, were hit by devastating floods, causing production to halt for 11 (Svoboda) and 38 days (Jan Šverma). The plants had gradually undergone modernization and become more environmentally friendly. However, in 2010 production at the Jan Šverma coking plant ended, meaning that Svoboda coking plant, located near the city center of Ostrava and founded in 1908, became the only remaining plant in OKK.

In 2013, the coking plant was acquired by former joint-stock company MTX CZ, the precursor to the current MTX Group. In the following year, Zdeněk Durčák joined the management of OKK Koksovny and started to significantly restructure the company. His main task was primarily to make the operation more efficient and environmentally friendly. The coking plant thus invested more than 100 million crowns into modernization and environmental protection annually. It also entered into voluntary agreements with the Statutory

The history of OKK

1843 Jan coking plant established (later renamed President Beneš and then Československá Armáda).

1846 Trojice coking plant established.

1858 Karolina coking plant established.

1892 Ignát coking plant, later known as Jan Šverma, established.

1899 Lazy coking plant established.

1908 František coking plant, today known as Svoboda, established.

1952 Ostravsko-Karvinské Koksovny was established, which managed all the surrounding coking plants which weren’t part of smelters. These were the Svoboda, Jan Šverma, Karolina, Trojice, Československá Armáda, and Lazy coking plants.

1967 Lazy coke plant shut down.

1983 Trojice coke plant shut down.

1984 Karolina coke plant shut down.

City of Ostrava and the Moravian-Silesian Region, through which it committed to other projects and measures which surpassed the minimum legal requirements.

Today, the Svoboda coking plant is one of the most modern operations of its kind in the world. It is not only the largest European producer of foundry coke, but also the largest exporter of coke to the USA.

TOKK Koksovny operates a total of four coking batteries with 210 chambers and a maximum annual production capacity of 800,000 tons of coke from its Svoboda plant. The company currently employs just under 500 employees and since May last year it has been managed by Pavel Woznica, who replaced Zdeněk Durčák as the managing director. Under his leadership, the coke plant continues to strive primarily to reduce its impact on the environment and ensure sustainable, efficient, and responsible operation near Ostrava city center.

1991 At the end of 1990, the state enterprise OKD ceased to exist and as its successor, the joint-stock company Ostravsko-Karvinské Doly (OKD) was established on January 1st of 1991 with the exclusive participation of the state. The coking plants belonged to this group as well.

1994 OKD puts the coke plants into a separate company, which is still 100% owned by OKD. The new company managed two coke plants in Ostrava and in the Karviná region.

1997 The Czechoslovak Army coke plant was shut down.

1998 The Jan Šverma and Svoboda coking plants underwent extensive environmental changes.

2010 After 118 years, the Jan Šverma coking plant was shut down, so only the Svoboda coking plant remains as part of OKK Koksovny.

2013 OKK Koksovny became part of MTX CZ, a.s., the precursor to the current MTX Group.

MTX Group Magazine

Volume II, Issue 2/2022

Editorial deadline: August 31st, 2022

Registration number MK ČR E 24206

Editorial work: Hero & Outlaw a.s. (art director: Štěpán Prokop, editor: Michaela Raková, proofreading: Edita Bláhová, editors: Luděk Vokáč, Jana Bohutínská, photo: Barbora Mráčková).

Translation: Tomáš Řádek, Editing: Aaron Bohlman

© 2022 MTX Group a.s. Copying