DUISBURG (dpa-AFX) - Metal trader Klockner & Co is strengthening its position in North America with a small acquisition. Through its US subsidiary Klockner Metals Corporation, the Duisburg-based company is acquiring metal components manufacturer Industrial Manufacturing Services (IMS). The contracting parties agreed not to disclose the purchase price and details of the deal, as the SDax company announced in Duisburg on Thursday. The group plans to consolidate the companies from November.

IMS manufactures metal components and serves original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the heavy machinery sector in North America. The company is based in Lancaster in the US state of South Carolina. It employs around 100 people there and generates annual sales of around 30 million US dollars (28 million euros). This corresponds to 0.6 percent of the sales of Klockner & Co's U.S. subsidiary, which generated around 5.4 billion U.S. dollars in revenues in fiscal 2022.

Klockner CEO Guido Kerkhoff nevertheless described the acquisition as "significant." According to the Group, it wants to make itself less dependent on steel price developments and benefit more from the prefabrication business, which generally describes the production and processing of the material./lfi/lew/stk