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VAI Industries (UK) Limited was established in Poole in 1996 as a subsidiary company of the Austrian-based Voest-Alpine Industrieanlagenbau Group (VAI), a world-leading engineering and metallurgical plant builder and systems supplier for the international iron and steel industry.

VAI UK was set up as a technical centre of excellence specialising in rolling mills, process lines and automation systems for the steel and aluminium industries world-wide.

With the acquisition by VAI of Kvaerner Metals Equipment (KME) in 1999, a further division for the supply of blast furnaces and other iron and steel-making technologies was also set up.

VAI UK now has offices in Sheffield and Stockton in addition to Aviation Park West at Bournemouth International Airport to where it moved from Poole last month.

Since its inception, VAI UK has become a leading supplier in the global metallurgical industry and is now a market leader for several of its products. Starting with a blank order book in 1996, VAI UK had seen total sales build to £515 million by November of this year with projected sales for 2002 of around £114 million.

Some 90-95 per cent of that total has been achieved from international markets.

During 2001/2002, VAI UK has built upon projects won in Australia, Brazil, Chile, India, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the USA and opened up new markets in China, Russia and Armenia. Having won four major contracts in China between late 2000 and August 2001, VAI UK won a further £35 million contract there during 2002 which included manufacture of "the world's widest slab caster."

The government has - through Trade Partners UK - recognised VAI UK's com-mitment to international trade and has indicated its intention to support VAI UK in its efforts to undertake business in the former Soviet Union.

The current plan is to organise jointly a VAI UK road show in Russia within the next year.