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What is Buderus?
Buderus is a steel mill in Germany. They have several of their own knife steel products, including Nitro-V, Nitro-B, and Nitro-X7. They have also produced a wide range of standard grades, including 1095, 80CrV2, 15N20, and W2.
Buderus was purchased by Bohler-Uddeholm in 2005, which was then purchased by voestalpine in 2007, meaning Buderus was then owned by voestalpine (voestalpine is not supposed to be capitalized) [1]. Buderus was sold by voestlpine at the end of 2024 [2], and that process was completed in February 2025 by Mutares SE &Co. [2]. The previous owner, voestalpine, stated that they were selling Buderus because they were “concentrating its product portfolio on the technologically demanding high performance materials segment, while simultaneously reducing its share of standardized tool steel and high-grade engineering steel production, the price of which is coming under increasing pressure due to greater competition from outside Europe” [3].
At the time of the sale, Buderus had 1,100 employees and units capable of making steel from beginning to end, including melting, casting, forging, hot rolling, and cold rolling [4]. Mutares is a soulless private equity company, so of course, they did not hold on to Buderus for long. They began the process of selling the hot rolling mill and heat treat facility to GMH Gruppe in August 2025 [5]. Mutares also sold the drop forging unit to a subsidiary of itself, FerrAl United Group (no, corporate business doesn’t make sense). Mutares said this would secure 670 jobs for Buderus, and GMH Gruppe said their two units would account for 300 of those 670 employees [6].
What happened to the other ~450 employees? Those were let go because the steelworks was shut down by Mutares [7], meaning no more melting and casting of steel for Buderus. Electric steelmaking was apparently difficult to make profitable in Germany due to high energy costs [8]. We were also told that the cold rolling mill would shut down. Cold rolling allows steel to be rolled down even thinner than a hot rolling mill, and also gives a better surface finish and tolerances.
GMH Gruppe is also a steel company, so they announced [6] that the acquisition of the Buderus hot mill “closes an existing production gap … expanding product range to dimensions of up to 300 mm square. This enables access to new markets – including those beyond the traditional passenger-car combustion-engine segment.” With the steelworks shut down Buderus can continue to make steel but they will be sourcing ingots from other facilities within GMH Gruppe – these include Georgsmarienhütte GmbH, Stahlwerk Bous, Schmiedewerke Gröditz, and Pleissner Guss [6].
Will Buderus Cease Production of Knife Steel?
I contacted Buderus and asked if they would continue to offer knife steel with these changes. Christian Simon, the head of sales responded, confirming that they would continue to source ingots from the sources within GHM Gruppe listed above, also mentioning Energietechnik Essen GmbH, the company that makes Cronidur 30 (sold as LC200N by Zapp). He then added information specifically about knife steels:
“Based on our billet and strip rolling mills, we can now offer you hot strip from Wetzlar in an even broader range of materials. You can, of course, continue to obtain our popular NITRO grades from us as hot strip. And whether ingot casting, continuous casting, or ESU grades – our modern electric arc furnaces are already producing Green Steel for a sustainable future.
For the time being, Buderus Edelstahl operates under the name GMH Precision Machining GmbH. We will soon provide further information about the new Buderus Edelstahl brand within the GMH Group.”
Sven Kunzer, Managing Director, added in a separate email:
“[N]ow the things are getting clearer. We are offering our knife grades like Nitro-V, Nitro-X7 and Nitro-B as hot rolled strip.”
In other words, no longer available as cold rolled strip, but hot rolled steel will be available. Buderus metallurgist Clemens Trinks sent me a document about their new production route which confirmed that they will be offering steel as thin as 2 mm (0.079″) which is likely thin enough for the majority of applications. Though Clemens also mentioned potential limits for width depending on the grade and that is likely even more so for the very thinnest sizes. The annealing available has also changed due the restructuring, and they have now moved to open air annealing box furnaces. To remove scale they are using shot blasting.
How Are People in the Knife Industry Responding?
There is confusion in the knife industry about what exactly is happening with Buderus. New Jersey Steel Baron has been selling Buderus steel to knifemakers for many years now. Their official communication [9] about Buderus said only that Buderus is permanently closing and says that these steels will not be returning. I believe that New Jersey Steel Baron did not know that Buderus is continuing and will continue to offer knife steel. Or perhaps they were ready to move on from Buderus. NJSB is correct that Buderus has been an important supplier of knife steel in recent years. Several difficult to obtain steels like W2 were regularly available in good sizes and prices due to Buderus. Other knife steel suppliers should pick up the slack from NJSB if they decide to no longer purchase these grades from Buderus.
There is also a recent Blade Magazine article [10] that interviewed a few people in the knife industry. They seem to all be under the impression that Buderus is closing for good. So we should get the word out that Buderus is still making knife steel.
Summary and Conclusions
There were some troubling reports about Buderus going away but those were premature. The recent statements I got from Buderus employees about continuing to produce knife steels in hot rolled strip are very positive. They should be able to continue making it through the new group’s steelworks to provide ingots and slabs for hot rolling. I don’t think it should be understated just how many different knife steel grades have been produced by Buderus in recent years, and hopefully for many years in the future.
[1] https://www.voestalpine.com/specialtymetals/en/about-us/history/
[2] https://mutares.com/en/mutares-has-completed-the-acquisition-of-the-business-of-buderus-edelstahl-gmbh-from-the-voestalpine-ag/
[3] https://www.voestalpine.com/group/en/media/press-releases/2024-10-23-voestalpine-sells-buderus-edelstahl-to-mutares/
[4] https://www.buderus-steel.com/en/company/about-us/
[5] https://mutares.com/en/mutares-portfolio-company-buderus-edelstahl-has-signed-an-agreement-to-sell-two-business-units-to-gmh-gruppe/
[6] https://www.gmh-gruppe.de/en/news/acquisition-of-buderus-edelstahl-gmbh-business-units-legally-completed/
[7] https://www.marketscreener.com/news/buderus-edelstahl-to-be-broken-up-after-mutares-takeover-hundreds-of-jobs-affected-ce7c50dedd8af725
[8] https://www.ffh.de/nachrichten/hessen/mittelhessen/442556-buderus-edelstahl-in-wetzlar-das-wars.html
[9] https://newjerseysteelbaron.com/steel-signals-1-on-the-closures-of-crucible-and-buderus/
[10] https://blademag.com/knife-news/buderus-mill-closure-threatens-10xx-carbon-steel-supply-for-knifemakers
