Success Story Dieffenbacher, Dieffenbacher – a hidden champion that values Commerzbank’s trade and export finance expertise
150 years of leading-edge technology
Based in Eppingen in southern Germany, Dieffenbacher GmbH Maschinen- und Anlagenbau is a family business in its fifth generation. The company specialises in designing and building press systems and complete production plants for the wood materials, forming and recycling industry as well as sustainable solutions for generating energy.
In 1873, Jakob Dieffenbacher founded a small company in Eppingen specialising in manufacturing fruit, wine and cooking oil presses. This laid the foundation for the group of companies that is now operates in more than 80 countries around the world. With the rise of plastics, Dieffenbacher started building the first Bakelite presses at the end of the 1920s, which paved the way for the modern-day forming division. In the 1950s, the company began to focus on expanding its wood-based panels division. Today, Dieffenbacher offers the widest variety of manufacturing processes and products for creating wood and composite materials. In 2014, it then launched a series of innovative recycling solutions. The company’s product range is complemeted out by Dieffenbacher Energy’s advanced power plants, heat recovery solutions and process equipment.
With this wide spectrum of technologically innovative products tailored to changing customer requirements, Dieffenbacher soon attracted attention at international level as well. To ensure that its new international business activities went smoothly, the company opted to call on Commerzbank’s foreign trade expertise very early on. Having an expert partner was invaluable when it came to settling national and international payments and FX trading, processing warranties and letters of credit, medium- to long-term export financing and much more besides.
With an export ratio of more than 80 percent, our company sets great store by Commerzbank’s reliability and in-depth technical expertise. Smooth workflows are vital for us – especially when dealing with the complexity of, for example, delivering cutting-edge plants to Egypt for manufacturing fibreboards from phoenix palm fronds. Commerzbank’s foreign trade specialists have been at our side for many years, providing creative and effective solutions in all areas of export finance. The bank also combines regional proximity with a strong international presence, which is something that is very important for us.
Head of Finance and Controlling, Dieffenbacher GmbH
A respected name among end customers and project developers alike
, Supply of a plant for the production of fibreboard from date palm fronds together with WeserDieffenbacher’s expertise is not only recognised by international clients, but also by many project developers and engineering companies looking for an expert partner for creating high-quality manufacturing plants.
One current example is Weser Industrie- und Anlagentechnik GmbH from the East Frisian town of Leer. Together with an Egyptian partner, Weser designed a plant for processing phoenix palm fronds. The palm fronds, which are usually considered agricultural waste can now be tranformed into high- and medium-density fibreboards (HDF/MDF). These fibreboards can then be used for floors or in the furniture industry as an alternative to wood. Once built, the plant will cover an area of 400,000 square metres in the Toshka region of southern Egypt and will use palm fronds from a neighbouring date farm to produce around 400 cubic metres of board every day.
When looking for a partner to help them build this sophisticated plant, Weser quickly decided that Dieffenbacher had the necessary mechanical engineering expertise and experience in recycling. While Weser is the general contractor for this turnkey project in a joint venture with Egyptian EPC specialist MT Mixers, Dieffenbacher is supplying the bulk of components for the production plant.
This also includes a 29 MW energy system that consists of a solid fuel-fired steam boiler and thermal oil heater and that is precisely tailored to the special requirements of incinerating palm waste.
Two companies, one bank – maximum synergies
Like many other German SMEs with international business profiles, both Weser and Dieffenbacher have been working closely together with Commerzbank for many years in their export activities. This has allowed a variety of synergies to be leveraged in full. For example, a joint sales team supported the cooperation between Weser and Dieffenbacher, bringing trade finance expertise and country-specific expertise to the table.
During the joint project, Commerzbank participated in numerous customer calls and provided many other services, for example carrying out preliminary document checks (to avoid later problems and expensive, time-consuming changes) or issuing digitally commissioned guarantees.
Commerzbank’s strong relationship with banks in Egypt, and in this case especially with large state banks in Cairo, also help the project to run smoothly”, comments Kristina Holzhäuser, Regional Head, Financial Institutions, Africa & Middle East. She also stresses the challenges and opportunities associated with economic diversification in the region, and the growing importance of northern African countries such as Egypt and Morocco in the field of renewable energy: “We know the local conditions and are right where companies need us.
Regional Head Financial Institutions Africa & Middle East