"We won't participate in de-industrialization!"
Interview with Sebastian Freiherr von Cetto, Managing Director of Gesellschaft für Wolfram Industrie mbH
"We can manufacture almost everything made of tungsten," emphasizes Sebastian Freiherr von Cetto, highlighting the versatility of his family business. He explained in an interview with Wirtschaftsforum why the company still insists on manufacturing in Germany in its 114th business year, and how he has engaged with the topic of sustainability long before it became woke.
Wirtschaftsforum: Mr. von Cetto, in addition to Gesellschaft für Wolfram Industrie mbH based in Nußdorf, your corporate group also includes Bayerische Metallwerke in Dachau as well as a research and development center in Switzerland - what exactly do you offer in the market with these facilities?
Sebastian Freiherr von Cetto: Basically, our value creation process starts from the raw powder using mixing and pressing methods, before moving onto the next step, sintering. At the Nußdorf location, we sinter in direct current passage, where the pressed part serves as an electrical resistor, so that it finally takes its metallic form. At Bayerische Metallwerke in Dachau, we focus not only on other alloys but also perform indirect sintering – depending on the alloy and characteristics, at temperatures up to 2,000 °C. After that, the machining and forming processes are next in line, where rods and wires, as well as electrodes and specialized medical parts are produced. Our slogan 'More than just Tungsten' is intended to highlight our extensive expertise and our broad manufacturing capabilities: we can produce almost anything made from tungsten or molybdenum.
Wirtschaftsforum: In which industries are your customers primarily located?
Sebastian Freiherr von Cetto: We operate in a wide range of industrial sectors – from aerospace and medical technology, power plant construction, food processing plants, the oil and gas, and food and beverage sectors to the semiconductor industry, and there we manufacture everything from customer prototypes in batch size 1 to serial production with quantities of several million. In my view, this broad commitment in diverse markets and sectors is also an important basis for our sustainable corporate success – especially in the last few years, which have not been easy for the industry in Germany. Therefore, we definitely want to remain as broadly positioned in the future as we are today – to not catch a cold immediately when the market sneezes once.
Wirtschaftsforum: Currently, the market is coughing so significantly that some voices are already talking about a deindustrialization of Germany.
Sebastian Freiherr von Cetto: This may even have been chosen as a goal by some – but we are not part of that. In our TIG welding electrodes, we are now even the last manufacturer in the Western world; all other market participants only manufacture these components in East Asia.
Wirtschaftsforum: Why have you consistently stayed in Europe?
Sebastian Freiherr von Cetto: Because we are a family business and thus feel a strong sense of responsibility for our 120 employees and their families! When we decided to build an entirely new location, there was briefly a question of whether we should consolidate our sites in Nußdorf and Dachau to produce more efficiently - but we quickly decided against this to avoid requiring our employees to endure several hours of commuting.
In addition, we can only seriously guarantee our special quality standards if our production is carried out here in Europe; after all, our production processes are very craft- and knowledge-intensive. Our customers appreciate this approach, especially those in highly regulated markets where, for example, re-certification by the FAA could consume many millions of U.S. dollars. Knowledge, service, accessibility, and quality will therefore remain the values our companies will continue to build on into the future.
Wirtschaftsforum: What role does the theme of sustainability now play in your day-to-day business?
Sebastian Freiherr von Cetto: We are often confronted with this question, and people are frequently surprised when I respond that for us, this is by no means a new trend that we need to adjust to. It has always been important to us to handle the resources that are given to us with care, and to manage them as well as possible. Of course, our production processes are very energy-intensive, but that is simply due to the material we process. Precisely for this reason, in our new workshops we have not only implemented heat recovery systems but, jointly with another local entrepreneur, also realized a project in which we generate hydrogen with a photovoltaic system, which is then used directly by us again as process gas. We have been engaged with this field of topics long before it became woke!