SSAB plans to set up a network of service centres in Asia, as part of plans by Sweden’s biggest steelmaker to capitalise on the region’s infrastructure boom by selling more speciality materials to makers of cranes, trucks and heavy excavators.

In the next five years the company wants to at least double its sales in Asia of what it calls “niche” products such as high-strength or tough steels used to reduce weight or add corrosion resistance. Such types of steel are used in components such as crane parts or the shovels and buckets of earthmoving equipment.

The initiative to increase revenues in Asia, particularly China and other fast-growing countries, fits into a plan by the company to push up the proportion of its total revenues that are derived from niche grades of steel to about 60 per cent by 2015, up from about 40 per cent last year.